Alina Burns, 18, has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison after admitting attempting to murder Mohammed Mahmoodi in a horrifying axe attack outside a Bristol barber’s shop as he stood chatting to a friend
Alina Burns then aged 18, attacked Mohammed Mahmoodi, an Iranian Kurd, with an axe on August 2 last year(Image: CTPSE)
A teenage girl obsessed with Hitler has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison after trying to behead a Kurdish barber who she had never met as he stood talking to a friend.
Alina Burns, 18, had admitted attempting to murder barber Mohammed Mahmoodi, an Iranian Kurd, in a shocking attack outside a barbers in south Bristol.
Bristol Crown Court heard Burns had been motivated by neo-Nazi extremism and had been in contact with far-right groups.
CCTV from the barbers captured the moment 5ft 2ins Burns swung an axe at his neck before he ducked at the last minute, avoiding the worst of the blow. The teenager then tried to strike Mr Mahmoodi again before he managed to disarm her, but he was left with painful scratches to his neck and cheek.
Police officers who had been patrolling nearby detained Burns and discovered she was carrying a scalpel and several darts. Burns nodded when the arresting officer asked her if she had swung the axe at the man. When he asked her why, she said: “I wanted to cut his neck.” She added: “I would do it again, but to succeed.”
The teen had searched for information online about Jihad, the Southport stabbings, Jewish supremacy and Nazi Germany the trial was told. Burns, who hung an England flag above her bed, was also a member of the far-right, fascist, neo-Nazi and white nationalist hate group Patriotic Alternative, the court has heard. Speaking today at Burs’ sentencing hearing Serena Gates KC, prosecuting, told the court: “The prosecution case is that the defendant had an extreme right-wing mindset and wanted Jews and Muslims to be killed, and non-whites to flee or be expelled from the UK.
“The day before the attack the defendant was watching videos of SS marches and sent an email called ‘The dawn of civil war’.”
She later told a Mental Health Act assessor she knew Mr Mahmoodi worked in the barbers, which was involved “in money laundering”.
“I know of him, he works in the Turkish barbers, I think they are money laundering and the police aren’t doing anything about it,” she said. So, if I done this, then maybe the police would investigate the shop.”
In a message to a man on a dating app, the court heard Burns had written: “Kill all Jews and Muslims.” Burns had “a desire for a white England, achieved, if necessary, through terror,” Serena Gates KC, told Bristol Crown Court.
Other disturbing messages found by cops saw Burns claim she had “realised my role in existence: I am the embodiment of hell, destined to annihilate everything holy I bear witness to”.
In another note she talked about carrying out a “plan” adding she wanted “all the credit and glory”.
Miss Gates told the court: “She further asked if it had been on the news yet. She said she wanted to influence people to do the same thing, but be successful.”
The teen also kept notebooks full of scribblings about Germany, Adolf Hitler and weaponry used by the Germans in the First and Second World Wars she also wrote notes about Hitler’s book Mein Kampf and the nationalist novel The Turner Diaries.
Detectives also found notes about the “spread of Islam”, how to use fertiliser to manufacture explosives, and nuclear weapons.
Computer records show she Googled “what age you buy an axe UK” on 30 July and also searched “how to properly use an axe for self-defence” prior to her attack.
The following day she also searched for YouTube videos, including one about Patrick Crusius, who killed 23 people during a mass shooting in a US Walmart supermarket.
She also looked up graphic “gore” videos, including one of a man fatally stabbed in the neck as well as searching how to use darts as a weapon.
The day before the attack she emailed herself saying: “Land is reclaimed through terror,” in a message titled, “The dawn of civil war”.
She wrote: it was “better if they flee out of fear rather than displace us in our own home”.
At a previous hearing, Burns, of Lynton Road, Bristol, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and three charges of having an article with a blade or point – specifically an axe, a scalpel and two darts.
She had denied a charge of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to the Terrorism Act, which was ordered to lie on file.
The Crown argued that despite accepting the plea, there remained a terrorist motivation to the attack, which was accepted by the judge, Mrs Justice Lambert.
The judge said Burns passed the threshold for an extended sentence for dangerousness.. She imposed a custodial sentence of 15-and-a-half years and an additional four-year period on licence.
Burns will be able to apply for parole after serving two thirds of the prison sentence.
