A man who sympathised wth the misogynist 'incel' subculture has been found guilty under the Terrorism Act of possessing weapons including a crossbow and machete.
Gabrielle Friel, 22, was found guilty of possessing the weapons at various locations in Edinburgh last summer including his home, a social work centre and a hospital in circumstances giving rise to the reasonable suspicion that possessing them was for a purpose connected with terrorism.
A second charge that he prepared for terrorist acts by researching spree killings, particularly those connected with incels – people who are involuntarily celibate – was found not proven, following a five-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
READ MORE: What is an incel? The dangerous subculture explained
As part of this charge, Friel was accused of having “expressed affinity with and sympathy for one incel-motivated mass murderer” and to have expressed “a desire to carry out a spree killing mass murder”.
Friel was in possession of a machete
The weapons he was found guilty of possessing between June 1 and August 16 last year are a crossbow, scope, crossbow arrows, a machete as well as a ballistic vest.
Judge Lord Beckett told him: “You have been found guilty of charge one, which is a very serious charge.
“Before dealing with you I can’t proceed without calling for a criminal justice social work report.”
READ MORE: Man accused of terrorism offences ‘addicted’ to topic of mass killings
He deferred sentencing until January 12 but told members of the jury it was likely to be “substantial prison sentence” and thanked them for their efforts.
Friel denied both charges and gave evidence in his own defence during the trial.
The court was told he amassed weapons last summer as he wanted to commit “suicide by cop” to help end his violent thoughts.
Friel said mass shooting was a “fantasy” for him and he “felt for” incel mass murderer Elliot Rodger, but denied being an incel and described killers as “evil”.
The 2014 Isla Vista killer Rodger – who murdered six people and injured 14 others – has been described as a trigger moment for the misogynistic subculture, which often involves ideas of violence towards women due to a lack of sexual activity.
The 22-year-old had a cache of arrows
Friel claimed he also wanted to commit “suicide by cop” when he stabbed a police officer at Edinburgh College’s Granton campus in November 2017.
He said fears he would fail a test had triggered negative thoughts of being bullied at high school in Singapore and previous attempts to take his own life, which led to further attempts before the college incident.
The court heard Friel was sentenced to 300 hours of community service after pleading guilty at a hearing in June 2018 to the stabbing, which endangered the officer’s life.
Following his conviction, Pat Campbell, Police Scotland’s Assistant Chief Constable for Organised Crime, Counter Terrorism and Intelligence, said: “Gabrielle Friel is a potentially dangerous and disaffected individual and Police Scotland welcomes the outcome of this case as the consequences of his actions could have been catastrophic.
“I sincerely thank the health and social care professionals and the Police Scotland officers involved in what was an extremely complex and challenging investigation. Their actions contributed to an early intervention and, undoubtedly prevented him undertaking an act that threatened the safety of our communities.
“The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service libelled these extremely serious charges against an individual for the very first time in Scotland. This was an unprecedented case and underlines the severity of Friel’s intentions.
“Police Scotland remains absolutely committed and focussed on protecting our citizens and working closely with partners to achieve this by delivering the multi-agency Prevent Strategy."
Assistant Chief Constable Campbell added: “We can’t do this alone and we also need the help of families, friends and the wider public.
“I know it can be a big step, particularly when we are referring to terrorism. But if you think that a family member or a friend is being radicalised, displaying extremist views or becoming involved in terrorist activity you should contact Police Scotland. Officers will work alongside other public protection partners to safeguard that individual and the public.
“By working together effectively, we will also help to safeguard individuals who have been identified as being vulnerable to radicalisation or being drawn into extremism."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel