Alina Burns, the Bristol neo-nazi whose conviction for the attempted murder of a Kurdish-Iranian barber’s customer was reported in Searchlight last month, has been sentenced to fifteen and a half years in prison with a further four years on extended licence.
Burns, now 19, attacked Mohammed Mahmoodi outside BHK Barbers in Bedminster on 2 August last year, swinging an axe at his neck from behind before he was able to wrestle it from her. She was also carrying a scalpel and two darts.
Terrorist motivation
When arrested she told an officer: “Because I wanted to cut his neck. I would do it again, but to succeed.”
Mrs Justice Lambert, passing sentence at Bristol Crown Court, ruled that a terrorist motivation applied. Burns had pleaded guilty to attempted murder and three counts of possession of a bladed weapon but denied preparation of a terrorist act.
The judge said she had “no doubt” Burns remained “a dangerous offender” who was “deeply entrenched” in her extremist belief system.
Burns had communicated via Telegram with Patriotic Alternative, the neo-Nazi organisation led by Mark Collett, and had spent the night before the attack watching SS march footage and composing an email titled “The dawn of civil war.”
Collett issued a statement after Burns’s conviction denying that she had been a member of PA.
Fled persecution
In a victim personal statement, Mahmoodi, who had fled Iran after persecution and sought asylum in the UK, said the attack had “completely changed” his life.
He described physical difficulties and persistent nightmares, adding: “I am still living with the effects of the attack more mentally than I could have imagined.”
The judge noted that in custody Burns had continued to display entrenched hostility toward gay people and had recently destroyed books in the prison library, suggesting her radicalisation remains undiminished. She will be eligible to apply for parole after serving two thirds of her custodial sentence.
