A rightwing extremist who discussed poisoning Jews and Muslims and called for the killing of migrants and minority communities has been jailed.
Ivan Jennings, 46, called for the murder of hundreds of people he labelled “subhumans”, saying it was “justified and actually needed”, in extreme far-right groups over a period of three months in 2024.
The father-of four from Stafford had pleaded guilty to encouraging terrorism in an online chat between 15 August and 14 November that year and dissemination of a terrorism publication, namely a manifesto by the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, on 21 August 2024.
Jennings, who worked at a warehouse, was jailed for five years and three months and handed a further five years on extended licence at Leicester crown court on Wednesday.
Daniel Oscroft, prosecuting, told the court that Jennings had been an “active participant” in at least seven extreme rightwing groups on the social media platform Telegram.
Jennings, who joined the far-right organisation Patriotic Alternative in early 2024, told one of the groups that he was in touch with a man “who wanted to go in a boat and make a difference to the amount of people coming into the UK”, the court heard.
In another post, when asked if he supported murder, the defendant wrote: “It’s not murder because we are at war. If it’s subhumans, it’s justified and actually needed.”
On 22 August that year, he searched online for motorboat chartering services at Dover and how much it cost to hire a boat in the UK. A week later, another user shared a video of a boat, on which Jennings commented: “We need one of those to take out the dinghy divers.”
He told another chat group “something needed to be done soon” and each person “needs to take out at least 200 and stop the constant influx [of migrants]”.
The defendant also shared a post about an event in Manchester celebrating Pakistan’s independence day, identifying it as a target with the message: “We need to start acting.”
He made reference to the 51 people killed in the Christchurch terror attacks, a mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand on 15 October 2019, adding: “We need a bigger impact.”
The court heard that another user commented on the post about the Pakistan independence day event: “It disgusts me to see that in the UK.” Jennings replied: “Exactly, we need to start acting to turn the tables.”
In another comment about the Pakistan event, he wrote: “If I go to prison for anything, it’s going to be for making a real change.”
Oscroft told the court: “In a smaller group of eight participants, there was discussion about the most poisonous mushrooms and how to get them into the food of Jews or Muslims.”
The defence barrister Oliver Renton said Jennings was “struggling with deep existential fears about himself” after he collapsed at work in 2023 in cardiac arrest, and that he descended into “fear and isolation” and became susceptible to “nihilistic, bleak worldviews”.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Lockhart KC said Jennings had “deeply held abhorrent and racist views”.
