A 20-year-old man from Honiton with a ‘terrorist mindset’ who ‘obsessively’ researched shooting and firearms online has been jailed for terrorism offences
jailed for five-and-a-half years after a trial in Hampshire
discussed murder in relation to skin colour and racism
was referred by his school to the government-led anti-terrorism programme Prevent on the strength of his extreme right-wing views
and arrested for possessing and sharing documents ‘useful’ to terrorists
said Gleed’s online discussions were ‘not true’ and were ‘jokey’ and ‘edgy’ chats
He said: “There is evidence of racist views towards black people and Jewish people
“He has performed Google searches about shooting incidents and in respect of firearms.”
Gleed was sent material by other adults the court was told
has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for terrorism offences.Photo: D&C Police
said Gleed committed one offence after he had been arrested
had failed to respond to warnings and had shown resistance to help offered
He said Gleed had been unaware of who was on the receiving end of the material he was sharing
He took into consideration Gleed’s lack of maturity and age
which could lead to obsessive thinking and a lack of understanding
He said Gleed had no previous convictions for terrorism offences
the judge said: “You are a very young person and you come across as somebody who is articulate and intelligent
your lack of education has had a devastating effect on the way you have grown up
“Much of your potential has so far been quite wasted
You are immature both chronologically and in your beliefs
It may be that your intelligence and ability to express yourself had masked the immaturity
“You are open to be exploited by other people
But it seems that you were not exploited by other people
you were simply influenced by what you chose to search for on the internet.”
The defendant was found with more than 1,500 documents across three devices
and was involved in discussions involving ‘change
Gleed admitted being racist from the age of 15 but claimed that was no longer the case
He said he held extreme right-wing views from the age of 17 until his arrest
The court heard how Gleed sent a series of messages online
He told the court he believed the messages were ‘humorous’
who were ‘just stupid’ in a bid to say ‘edgy’ and ‘outrageous’ things to other lads
He told the court it was not his intention to follow through any of the threats discussed online
Gleed said many of the documents found on his devices had gone unread
although he denied he encouraged terrorism
He admitted once having nationalist socialism views
viewing things in the future as a race-based state
where the nation and government serves a race’
The court heard Gleed was referred to Prevent by his school
and again in 2022 by a charity supporting young adults through education after the teenager expressed ‘right wing ideology’ views
After the second referral Gleed refused to engage with Prevent and was arrested in relation to possessing material linked to terrorism
He was released on bail after police seized two of his devices
Gleed was re-arrested after police found he was sharing content likely to be useful to terrorists
but denied they were terrorist publications
The court heard how Gleed had been living and sharing a flat with his unwell mother
which he used to ‘obsessively research’ without any boundaries or supervision
The defendant said he was not cared for during his teenage years
Gleed was arrested in September 2022 as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South West (CTPSW)
finding publications of an extreme right wing terrorist nature
Investigators established that this was evidence of his interest in extreme content which he promoted and distributed to others online through messaging applications
He was sentenced to five years and six months in prison and will serve two-thirds of it with a further year on licence
And he received a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) to be served on release
said: “Gleed represents a threat to our communities and the impact of his offences
including the influence of the content he shared
Such offences have a potentially dangerous
radicalising effect and it’s right he’s been convicted for his activity.”
the evidence against Gleed has resulted in this outcome.”
Gleed was found guilty of four offences of possession of a document of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism
two offences of distributing terrorist publications
and two offences of providing a service to others that enabled them to obtain
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A road traffic collision earlier today at the junction of Moor Lane and Honiton Road in Exeter led to major delays and heavy congestion across the surrounding area
Emergency services responded swiftly to the incident
which occurred near the busy roundabout linking Honiton Road
Moor Lane and Ambassador Drive - a key route for drivers heading towards the M5
Sowton Industrial Estate and Exeter city centre
The number of vehicles involved and the extent of any injuries are currently unconfirmed
Authorities have since reopened the affected lanes and traffic is returning to normal
yet motorists are advised to expect ongoing delays
Drivers are being asked to find alternative routes where possible and allow extra time for their journey
The Moor Lane junction is one of Exeter’s busiest and most congested
Further updates will be provided as more details are released
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An elderly couple from Honiton have been conned out of thousands of pounds by men pretending to be undercover detectives
Police are carrying out house-to-house enquiries and checking CCTV footage in a bid to identify an Afro-Caribbean man and Middle Eastern male who called at the couple’s home over two evenings to pick up around £17,000 they duped from the pensioners
The couple were scammed out of around £17,000 in total over two days after a man repeatedly telephoned them from a withheld number
claiming to be an undercover detective who was enrolling civilians to help him gather money to check for fake banknotes
Police said an Afro-Caribbean man called the couple’s home in the evening on Wednesday
which a man on the phone had told them to gather
the victim’s wife drove to several banks and building societies in the area to withdraw around £11,000
which they handed over to a Middle Eastern man who turned up at the couple’s home that evening
Devon and Cornwall Police have launched an investigation and are appealing for information to identify the fraudsters
A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesperson said: “An elderly couple from Honiton have a been swindled out of thousands of pounds after they were contacted by men pretending to be detectives
“The couple received numerous calls from a withheld number where a man claimed to be a detective working undercover at the local police station
“The man also claimed he was part of a national operation to identify counterfeit money within the local area and advised he was ‘recruiting’ the victims as undercover civilians to gather money to be checked
the man asked the victim to gather seven thousand euros which was collected later that evening by an unknown man
He has since been described as being Afro-Caribbean.”
The spokesperson added: “On Thursday 5 December
a similar incident occurred where the victim was asked to gather more money
The victim’s wife drove to several local banks and building societies to withdraw approximately eleven thousand pounds
a different man attended the victims’ home and collected the money
He was described as being a Middle Eastern male
“Police were later alerted and an investigation was launched
Enquiries are currently ongoing including house-to-house enquiries and checking local CCTV.”
A crash between a police vehicle and a car at Honiton where a man was injured has sparked a call for witnesses
Devon and Cornwall Police said a marked police vehicle was involved in a crash with a silver hatchback car on the A35 at Tower Cross
A man was taken to hospital with injuries described by police as ‘not believed to be serious’
The crash has prompted police to appeal for witnesses
A force spokesperson said: “Police are appealing for witnesses following a serious collision on the A35 at Tower Cross
Honiton which happened on Wednesday 5 March
“Officers were contacted at around 8.40pm to reports of a collision involving a marked police vehicle and a silver hatchback
“The road was closed while an investigation was carried out at the scene
his injuries are not believed to be serious.”
The spokesperson added: “Officers from the Roads Policing Team would like to thank the public for their patience whilst the road was closed.”
If you have information to help police, call 101, or report it online
Trains are running again between Axminster and Exeter St Davids after Network Rail teams worked around the clock for two weeks in order to renew the line
The line reopened for passenger use on time in the morning of Saturday 23 November
however treacherous weather conditions due to Storm Bert resulted in a revised service being run along the West of England Line until Monday.
engineers laid a mile of new track through the Honiton Tunnel
which has replaced the existing 50-year-old rails
This work required the installation of 2,300 concrete sleepers and 4,000 tonnes of new ballast stone
eight road rail vehicles and two road rail bulldozers were deployed to the site over the past fortnight
which was originally opened in 1860 and consists of 11 million bricks
is prone to leaks from the natural springs in the area and over 150 metres of new drainage has been installed at the Honiton end of the tunnel to help preserve the line
Teams also replaced half a mile of track between Pinhoe and Feniton
while also stabilising the embankment at Cleave
The Honiton end of the tunnel also fell victim to a landslip in August and Network Rail have worked to stabilise the surrounding area to reduce the risks to the railway
This work is part of a wider scheme to renew the West of England Line
which connects Exeter with London Waterloo via Honiton
Further work to renew the line is scheduled to take place in 2025
said: “I am delighted that works to renew the line through the Honiton tunnel have been completed and trains are now able to run through from Axminster to Exeter
The West of England Line is a critical route for connecting passengers from Devon to London
and I hope these works improve the resilience of this vital stretch of track
“I want to pay tribute to everyone involved in bringing this renewal work around the Honiton tunnel to its conclusion
a combined 7,500 hours to ensure we could achieve this ambitious project within the two weeks
“I would like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding over the past two weeks
while we have closed the line for this important renewal work
I know there is never a convenient time to close the railway for an extended duration so we’re sorry to any passengers disrupted by this closure.”
Customer and Commercial Director for South Western Railway
said: “We're very pleased to see the line between Axminster and Exeter re-open following essential maintenance by our colleagues at Network Rail
Two weeks is a long time to close such an important part of the West of England Line and so we are very grateful for our customers' patience.”
to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years
04 September, 2024 By Nia Kajastie
Network Rail and principal contractor Dyer & Butler recently completed emergency works at the landslide-prone Honiton tunnel cutting in Devon
Network Rail’s earthworks sensors in the Honiton tunnel cutting detected movement on one of the slopes
and the railway between Honiton and Axminster was shut as a safety precaution
it soon became clear that a more robust solution was required
Water was flowing out of the side of the slope
Drilling holes for the wall foundations was hampered by the soft mud
Speaking from the site in an update video on 24 August
Network Rail’s engineering and asset management director for the Southern Region
said: “This isn’t surface water; this is water from deep within the ground
and it’s proving really challenging to understand exactly where the water’s tracking from and how we can divert it
we put in some temporary mitigations to hold back any material which was coming down the slope and that worked well until Friday afternoon [23 August]
but the volume of material we saw coming down just wasn’t practical to hold it back any further.”
Network Rail was forced to close the line again
It has worked on the repairs together with principal contractor Dyer & Butler and subcontractor Van Elle
while SEP Engineering has served as the designer
The project team built a permanent protective wall at the bottom of the slope
“Due to the ongoing nature of the landslip
we built a protective wall to prevent the spoil from accessing the railway,” a Network Rail spokesperson told GE
6m deep boreholes for the foundations of the wall
This turned out to be a challenging task due to the soft mud
Water flowing from the top of the tunnel was slowing down the work
“Each hole then needed to have water pumped out
before concrete was poured in,” the spokesperson explained
which involved hammering large steel girders into place
we then added timbers to fully build the wall.”
The wet weather continued while work was ongoing during the bank holiday weekend
with 30mm of rain coming down within 24 hours at the site
The water continued to flow down the slope
The constant clearing works slowed down the works
Trains were cleared to run through the tunnel again on 26 August
The team has carried out nightly clearance work to deal with the spoil
It has also cleared drainage systems along the railway to remove any excess water and continues to monitor the slope for any further movement
Honiton tunnel is among the most at-risk sites in the south of England
The deep cutting that leads up to the tunnel is in an area with complex geology and multiple natural springs
It has suffered from landslides over the years
In 2022
Network Rail announced a £5M project to strengthen the cutting at Honiton tunnel
which saw the installation of a 32m long and a 16m long retaining wall
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Tagged with: Devon Dyer & Butler landslide Network Rail Tunnel Van Elle
Network Rail and Volker Fitzpatrick have stabilised a section of railway cutting between Swanwick and Fareham in Hampshire
Enabling works on the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing scheme – a 4.2km twin bore road tunnel under the river between Kent and Essex – could begin in October of this year
Turner & Townsend Infrastructure has been named the preferred bidder for the independent technical adviser role on United Utilities’ Haweswater Aqueduct project
The May 2025 issue of Ground Engineering visits ground investigation sites on the French-Swiss border for Cern’s proposed new particle accelerator tunnel
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Fast-moving cigar-shaped ‘UFOs’ have been spotted flying high above Honiton prompting the question – are we alone
filming footage of unidentified flying objects on clear nights in the skies over the town
said the soundless objects change shape and colour
Film footage and photos captured by dad-of-one Steve show dots of lights
He said he first spotted the unexplained shapes as he walked through the town at night
He does not believe the lights are aircraft from the nearby airfield
“I’ve been seeing them over the last month around the town
If you look up on a clear night you can see them,” he said
“You do get carried away watching them when they move about
“Some are long cigar shape that curl around themselves
The thing that amazes me is how fast it’s moving
and how it changes from one direction to another
they are changing shape into something more oblong
They don’t move There are not as many as there were
Steve said friends and family have been left ‘gobsmacked’ by his footage of the flying objects
And though he cannot explain what he filmed
he had never seen any UFO activity before the Honiton sightings
it’s usually a once in a lifetime experience.”
He has filmed the unexplained shapes and lights over several weeks
I got my phone out and zoomed in with the camera,” said Steve
who recently moved to East Devon from Hampshire
Over a month I have been seeing them now but there’s not so many now.”
Have you seen the UFO shape-changing lights
A Honiton man has been jailed for five-and-a-half years
with an extended license period when he is released
was found guilty of eight offences relating to terrorist publications that he'd distributed on messaging apps
He was arrested in September 2022 as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South West (CTPSW)
Officers seized his digital devices which contained publications of an extreme right wing terrorist nature
Mr Gleed had an interest in extreme content which he promoted and distributed to other people online
He will serve two-thirds of his prison sentence
He was also given a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) to be served on release
detective superintendent Sarah Robbins said: “Gleed represents a threat to our communities and the impact of his offences
radicalising effect and it’s right he’s been convicted for his activity.”
the evidence against Gleed has resulted in this outcome.”