Armed uprising online chat ‘pure fantasy’, says terror accused

A Covid denier who posted about an armed uprising during the pandemic with AK47 rifles, petrol bombs and rocket launchers has told jurors it was “pure fantasy”.

Paul Martin, 60, is on trial at the Old Bailey charged with encouraging terrorism on a Telegram group entitled The Resistance UK and having crossbows, arrows and blades “for the purposes of terrorism”.

Giving evidence on Monday, the defendant insisted a lot of what he wrote in some 16,000 Telegram posts was “twaddle”.

He told jurors that he was an enthusiastic contributor when he joined the Telegram group under the handle Perpetual Truth in December 2020.

“It was all new to me. I didn’t fully understand the protocols of being on the internet and I got carried away with it for a while,” he said.

But towards September 2021, his engagement tailed off after his friend warned him he was “being ridiculous talking gibberish”.

Asked what would set him off, Martin said: “At that time it would have been pure boredom.”

Martin denied intending any violence when he posted about going to arms, saying it was “a bit of bravado”.

Defence barrister Dominic Thomas asked: “Then why say it?”

Martin replied that he had been “talking gibberish really, baloney.”

He insisted that he would never hurt anyone and did not believe the situation had reached the stage of a “lawful rebellion”.

Mr Thomas said: “Do you accept that many of these conversations are about the subject of a potential rebellion?”

The defendant agreed.

The barrister went on: “You talk about longbows and crossbows and how they are legal.”

Martin said: “At the time, I was thinking in my head better to be a warrior in the garden than a gardener in the battlefield. Be prepared.”

He denied he would have used the weapons, saying he had “never been one for confrontation”.

Posts about petrol bombs were “twaddle” and he would not have encouraged people to make them, the defendant said.

References to “thousands of armed dissenters”, “100 AK47s and 60 veterans” were just ideas in his mind for a story, he added.

He told jurors: “I had this idea for a story I was trying to write. You could have 100 AK47s and 60 veterans. It was pure fantasy.”

Chat about land-to-air shoulder rocket launchers taking down helicopters was “absolute pure fantasy” too, jurors were told.

Martin said: “Only the military would have them in this country.

“For starters, they probably cost half-a-million pounds each – they are not going to be found at your local market.”

Asked if he had experience of leading men in battle, the defendant said he had only ever played paintball.

On his claim that he was writing a book, Martin told jurors: “Yeah I was contemplating putting it to paper.”

He said he had come up with a book title Two Steps Forward, One Step Back and formulated some characters.

Mr Thomas asked: “Have you written so much as one chapter of a book?”

Martin replied: “No – I have steered clear of anything. No paintball, no bushcraft, no fishing.”

Martin, of Suffolk Road, Croydon, has admitted having a stun gun but denied the other two charges against him.

The Old Bailey trial continues.