A teenage member of a Satanic far-Right group who plotted to kill a homeless man wanted to “cleanse society”, counter-terror police have said.
Cameron Finnigan, a core member of militant online extremist collective 764, admitted possessing a terrorism document that contained detailed instructions on how to carry out “mass casualty attacks”.
The 19-year-old told other users in a Telegram chat that he was going to carry out the killing during a period he had dubbed “terror week”.
He also admitted encouraging the suicide of a young woman so other members of 764 could watch online, criminal damage and possession of category A indecent images of a child.
On Thursday, at the Old Bailey, he was sentenced to six years in jail with an extended licence period of three years.
The 764 group has gained notoriety across the world for its sadistic modus operandi which involves grooming young children found via online games and social media.
Its members coerce their victims into sending them sexually explicit pictures before threatening to publish the images if they do not do what they say.
They then force the children to film themselves carrying out self-harm, further sexual acts, and even suicide.
Following Finnigan’s admission of a number of offences, counter-terror detectives have revealed other members of the group are currently under investigation in the UK.
Detective Chief Inspector Claire Finlay, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: “There have been other arrests. There are live investigations both in the UK and abroad.
“The assessment as to whether they cross the terrorism threshold is still something that in some cases is being decided.”
A large tapestry with an image of a Satanic beast was hung up in Finnigan’s bedroom
On March 26 last year, Finnigan was arrested at the multi-million pound home he lived in with his adoptive mother, father and biological sister in Horsham, West Sussex.
Detectives described him as a “loner” who had previously been expelled from school over “incidents of violence”.
In his bedroom was a large tapestry with an image of a Satanic beast on it as well as a notebook with swastikas.
On one page he wrote: “Feelings are redundant” and “Acid is the highest Satanic embodiment of mankind”.
There was also a punchbag with stab and slash marks on it as well as holes in the wall that appeared to have been made with a hammer or fist.
On his phone, they found a video of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine High School shooters, accompanied by the word “love”.
There was also an 11-page PDF document that contained detailed instructions on how to carry out truck, knife and firearm attacks.
It also highlighted ideal targets, all of which were “mass casualty ones”, police said.
The document was created by a Russian group referred to as the “Maniac Murder Cult” that promoted the targeting of ethnic minorities, the LGBT community and people involved in the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.
A video was found on Finnigan’s phone that showed on Jan 16 he had smashed the window of a woman’s car and slashed her tyre while it was parked on a driveway.
There was also a video of him strangling the family cat.
A knife that was found among Finnigan’s possessions
Shortly before he was arrested, Finnigan posted in a Telegram group chat called 764 a video of a red tent in a field near his home which he claimed had a homeless man inside.
He said that he wanted to kill the person inside which detectives believe was part of his mission to “cleanse society”.
He told other users that he would “get the homeless man on his knees and force him to submit to 764” before shooting him in the head.
Detectives were unable to find the alleged victim and therefore Finnigan was not charged with attempted murder or conspiracy to murder.
DCI Finlay said: “It felt to me like he was looking to ‘cleanse society’ [with the killing].”
Police also discovered he had been messaging a young woman, believed to be in Italy, encouraging her to kill herself. He told her he wanted her to film it and livestream it so he could then share it with other members of the group.
Finnigan encouraged her to hang herself using a rope and wanted her to stream it online so he could claim it for 764, the court was told.
The court also heard that he told police he felt “pretty confident that (she) would not commit suicide”.
The US Department Of Justice said the 764 group “seeks to do unspeakable harm to children to advance their goals of destroying civilised society” and “fomenting civil unrest”.
In a warning issued in November last year, assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said: “Many members have an end-goal of forcing their victims to commit suicide on live stream for the 764 network’s entertainment, or for the perpetrator’s own sense of fame within the 764 network.”
The group is associated with a notorious far-right Satanic group called the Order of the Nine Angles.
Both groups are said to have a “militant accelerationist ideology” that seeks to provoke a race war.