Neo-Nazi Ethan Stables ‘indefinitely detained’ over plot to attack LGBT event
(Greater Manchester Police)
A neo-Nazi has been placed in indefinite detention in a psychiatric facility order over a plot to attack an LGBT event.
Ethan Stables, 20, was found guilty in February of preparing an act of terrorism, threats to kill, and possessing explosives, after he had planned to attack a Pride night at a pub in Barrow, Cumbria in June 2017.
Stables avoided a jail sentence at Leeds Crown Court today after a psychiatric assessment, and was instead given an an indefinite hospital order.
Hospital orders are used to confine a person to a psychiatric hospital for treatment for a mental illness.
Stables was arrested in June last year after he told fellow members of a Nazi-themed Facebook group that he was going to murder people at the an LGBT night held at Barrow’s New Empire pub.
Ethan Stables kept a Swastika in his bedroom
The self-declared neo-Nazi had previously espoused extreme racist, homophobic and overtly white supremacist views online.
In the posts he vowed to “go to war” and “slaughter every single one of the gay bastards”.
(Ethan Stables Facebook)
He wrote: “I’ve had enough, I don’t want to live in a gay world and I sure as hell don’t want my children living in one.”
“What happened to our traditional qualities? They’re f**king ruined. I don’t care if I die, I’m fighting for what I believe in and that is the future of my country, my folk and my race.”
Stables – who also filmed himself burning a rainbow flag – said he would carry out the attack with a machete, walking into the pub and slaughtering anyone he found.
Stables burning a rainbow flag
Police found that Stables had also researched firearms and looked into methods for making a bomb.
The court heard that Stables had looked into banned neo-Nazi groups Combat 18 and National Action. He applied to join National Action but was rejected.
The Nazi supporter attracted media attention during his trial when he claimed he was bisexual, but the judge described the announcement about his sexuality as “lies”.
(Ethan Stables Facebook)
Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford said: “Between 2016 and his arrest in 2017, he was planning and preparing to commit acts of terrorism directed towards members of these groups but, primarily, directed towards people who were lesbian or gay.
“His purpose in these acts of preparation was to launch a murderous attack on members of these communities – in particular, the prosecution suggests, people who were gay.”
Stables visiting the library in his hometown
Stables’ mother claimed he had become radicalised by far-right extremists after a trip to Germany, while Stables, who has Asperger’s syndrome, said he had been “brainwashed”.
