The three things terrorist Alexander Dighton blamed for his vicious attack on police officers
The three things terrorist Alexander Dighton blamed for his vicious attack on police officers
The 28 year-old loner said his grievances which led to his attacks on police had been brewing for 15 years or more.
He made a fire under a police van to lure officers out
(Image: PA )
Sentenced to life for a ferocious attack on a police station in South Wales loner Alex Dighton launched into an unhinged tirade against what he sees as government corruption. He blamed three things that he saw as being possible reasons for violence against the state.
Addressing the judge Mark Lucraft KC at the Old Bailey on June 13 the 28-year-old from Pontyclun, said he was "not interested in fame" but wanted a "conversation" about matters that bothered him.
Airing grievances ranging from lockdown parties held by Boris Johnson to the Tavistock gender clinic, Dighton, who represented himself in court, cited issues he said had been bothering him for years. Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
The Old Bailey heard he defendant harboured extreme anti-Islam, anti-immigration and anti-government views. He had sympathy for far right politics and misogynistic Incel groups.
Alexander Dighton has been jailed for life
(Image: PA Media )
A police investigation into Dighton's activities after the attack showed he had shared some of these entrenched views on social media, including X, and in chat rooms , but they had not been so extreme as to have broken the law. The gamer also identified with characters on Warhammer.
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Addressing the court as he faced a life sentence behind bars Dighton said in a matter of fact tone: "I don't care about myself being noticed. Fame is not important to me. What I think is important is having a conversation about where Britain is right now. Whether violence against the state is justified.
"Has the state got to a point where violence is justified? You have grooming gangs and Boris Johnson having parties in lockdown. Open corruption. You have the Tavistock Clinic mutilating children.
'I have been watching this for 15 years…this is years of build up. People have such a short memory.
'I will be done. It doesn't bother me."
Dighton was armed with a knife, sharpened poles and Molotov cocktails when he attacked Talbot Green police station on January 31 this year. Today he was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years in prison for the attack.
The loner, who lived in Pontyclun, previously admitted 10 charges relating to the attack, including attempting to murder of a police officer.
Dighton, who the court hard has been of good behaviour in custody and had no previous convictions, was considered to have been motivated by terrorism, the judge said. He had shown no remorse for the attack which left police officers needing hospital treatment and still held "rigid" and extremist views.
The former prize winning student, who won a Wales-wide competition in advanced mechanical engineering for his computer-aided design of a wobbler engine aged 18, told the court his unhappiness with the system had begun at school.
Diagnosed with Asperger's aged seven he spent two years at a special educational needs primary before going on to mainstream secondary and university. The court heard he had had some mental health problems and a "difficult" family upbringing.
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But the judge deemed there were no mitigating factors for the violence he committed at Talbot Green police station, other than early guilty pleas, and he represented a continuing danger with his lack of remorse and entrenched views.
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