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Moray man Jon Craig who carried out assault on his supervisor at Walker's Shortbread factory had bomb-making and terrorist information on his phone


By Alistair Whitfield

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Police found bomb-making and other terrorist material on a Moray man's electronic devices as they investigated him for a serious assault.

Jon Craig was jailed in 2018.
Jon Craig was jailed in 2018.

Father-of-five Jon Craig had been arrested for what Lord Mulholland described as a "cowardly and vicious" attack on his factory supervisor at Walker's Shortbread.

The woman was left disabled when her skull and facial bones were smashed with a pole on October 26, 2017.

Craig then of Pinefield Crescent, Elgin was subsequently jailed for six years in May 2018 at the High Court in Glasgow, after admitting assaulting his victim to the danger of her life.

But police discovered another sinister side to the 59-year-old when they found details for the ingredients and method to make explosives and a bomb.

Literature about the British National Party was also saved onto his computer equipment.

In addition, there were Neo-Nazi photographs including one of Craig posing in front of a Swastika, as well as images of people convicted of terrorist offences, including Abu Hamza al-Masri and other radicals.

Speaking at Inverness Sheriff Court today, fiscal depute Jonathan Kemp said: "There were two images of Winston Churchill with quotes 'Islam is as dangerous in a man as rabies in a dog. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world'."

Craig, who is also known as Coulter, admitted possessing documents likely to be useful to terrorists between November 23, 2008 and November 30, 2017.

Defence counsel Euan Dow said his client had no intention of carrying out any terrorist act, adding: "These had been lying dormant for years.

"His position is that he obtained them out of curiosity.

"There is nothing to indicate that he used the formula or passed it on.

"The images were downloaded two days after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 and he and a friend were curious about the making of the kitchen devices used.

"These images were freely available. He has no terrorist connections."

Sheriff Frazer was told that Craig's earliest release for the assault was November 30, 2023.

The Sheriff added a year on to that.

He said: "You have pleaded guilty to a serious charge which, at this time, and at the time of the offence, was when there was heightened security in this country."

Related article: Jon Craig attack - Walkers deny all former employee's claims


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