Conspiracy theorists who spewed antisemitic rhetoric online and plotted to burn down 5G masts sentenced to jail

A couple who spewed antisemitic rhetoric online and plotted to burn down 5G masts have been sentenced to jail.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Christine Grayson, 60 from York, and Darren Reynolds, 60 from Sheffield, self-dubbed “Bonnie and Clyde with a box of matches”, planned to destroy the masts because they believed that they would be used as a weapon against those who had taken the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The couple had also gathered weapons, which included a crossbow and an M16 and an AK-47 replica assault rifle, in preparation for what they thought was the collapse of society. 

Additionally, the pair of conspiracy theorists encouraged attacks on MPs owing to what they perceived to be “treasonous behaviour” in relation to the country’s regulations on COVID-19.

Mr Reynolds took to the social media app Telegram where he said that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove should be “eliminated” and described Parliament as “a nest of Jews, foreigners, and collaborators”.

He also promoted the “Great Replacement Theory”, an antisemitic far-right conspiracy theory that claims that Jews are the secret masterminds behind a planned “invasion” of non-white immigrants into western countries with the aim of making white people a minority to further an insidious, but largely unclear, agenda.

Mr Reynolds later reiterated his online rhetoric when he told police that he believed “we are being replaced by the dark races” and that the Jews were behind a plan to bring about the “extinction of the white race”.

Additionally, it was reported that Mr Reynolds published links to repositories of far-right writing from people such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler, as well as the Christchurch mosque shooter, Brenton Tarrant, the Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist, Anders Breivik.

In a conversation between the pair on Telegram, Mr Reynolds said that they could be “the first male-female arson team”, with Ms Grayson replying: “Bonny and Clyde [sic] with a box of matches”.

She added: “Think we need a group for fire balling 5G.”

Although Ms Grayson later said that she did not share Mr Reynold’s racist views, she also said that Mr Johnson, who was Prime Minister at the time, was “not even English, he is Turkish, Jewish”, and that there should be “English people” running the country.

Mr Reynolds was found guilty of six counts of possession of material useful for terrorism and one count of disseminating such material and was jailed for twelve years, with an additional year on licence, owing to what the judge termed his “extreme right wing, antisemitic and racist views”.

Ms Grayson was found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and was sentenced to twelve months in prison, and will be released after spending nine months on remand. Judge Kearl told her that she would be released on licence, but failure to comply would result in her returning to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence.