LONDON — A man from the South Coast of England has become the world’s first convicted ginger terrorist.
After decades of perceived abuse for his red hair, Mark Colborne, 37, stockpiled the ingredients required for an arsenal of chemical weapons that he was planning to deploy against “blacks and Caucasian idiots,” officials say.
On behalf of his ginger “brothers,” the man’s ultimate aim was to assassinate Prince Charles and Prince William so that the British crown could be placed on the red head of Prince Harry.
Colborne was found guilty Tuesday in London of preparing terrorist acts after his family found the substances needed to make cyanide in his bedroom along with dust masks, a spray bottle, gloves, and a chemical that would help the poison penetrate his victims’ skin.
He had also amassed a small library of manuals that may have helped him commit an atrocity, including The Poor Man’s James Bond, which was compiled by former American Nazi Party member and survivalist Kurt Saxon.
More alarming than the recipes for napalm, cyanide, and ricin were the journals penned by Colborne that spelled out his terrifying hair-color-based ideology.
“I want them to see my transition from poor red-haired victimized minority that is constantly walked over to a fully transformed military terrorist striking at the hearts of the bigoted tyrannical rulers and of course the dark-haired dark-eyes Caucasian race,” he wrote. “I will be heard through terror.”
Authorities say Colborne once joined the far-right British National Party, which is associated with a history of racist views, and he studied a copy of Mein Kampf. There is, after all, very little ginger-supremacist material available outside the Angry Ginger Kid YouTube video and the work of red-headed Australian singer Tim Minchin, whose song “Prejudice” includes the words:
So listen to me if you care for your health / You won’t call me ginger ’less you’re ginger yourself / Only a ginger can call another ginger, ginger
With no obvious ginger-power leaders to look up to, Colborne had to be more imaginative. He wrote: “The IRA are my heroes—acting as a small military force taking on a wealthy power, and of course red hair being associated with their history.”
Colborne’s brother, who gave evidence in court, discovered the journals, which contained graphic threats of violence alongside recollections of taunting. “There were also a number of comments about being attacked and abused when younger... and being laughed at and bullied because he was ginger. All of what I had found scared and concerned me greatly,” he said.
Kevin Colborne also discovered receipts for pine charcoal and sodium phosphate, which he was shocked to discover online were used to manufacture explosives. He immediately went to get his mother from work.
“Mum was the first person into the room... She picked up a cardboard box and we gathered round. I can recall pulling out a bottle of distilled water, scales, iron oxide, and a brown bottle,” he said. “Mum was having a look around and also on the floor. She found a book called Assorted Nasties. It appeared to be a book on poisons and how they could be used.”
Despite his mother’s protests, Kevin called the police.
Detectives would later uncover details of his plots to commit mass murder against non-gingers. “I don’t want to be a serial killer. I’m more of an Anders Breivik,” wrote Colborne, citing the Norwegian right-wing terrorist who killed 77 people in 2011. “I’m looking for major retribution, a mass terrorist attack which will bring to the attention our pain not just mine but my brothers around the world.”
Colborne wrote in his journal that he wanted to set off a bomb in his hometown. “I would like to create a huge explosion in Southampton town centre or in a pub full of Caucasians and then tell the newspapers the reason for the attack,” he said. “I’ve often thought of following a Caucasian, killing him and taking his head.”
In his lurid diary entries, he described himself and fellow redheads as Aryans, locked in battle with the black and Caucasian communities.
His most outlandish plot was to install Prince Harry as king of the gingers. “Wouldn’t it be great to have a military silent rifle, take up a good stealth position and put a bullet in Charles’ head. I would sacrifice my life for that one shot,” he wrote. “Kill Charles and William, and Harry become king.
“Kill the tyrants.”
