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Ex-British army chef jailed for 3 years 10 months over homemade gun and explosives

Mark Broadhurst, 28, a former British Army chef, was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court after a judge ruled his weapons offences were connected to terrorism, though he denied that purpose. Police say he held extreme right-wing views.

2 outlets · 1L · 0C · 1R First reported Account updated
Image: The Straits Times
Image: Al Jazeera

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The story, neutrally told

Mixed · 2Mark Broadhurst, 28, a former British Army chef, was jailed for three years and 10 months at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday 14 October 2026. Right · 1He was arrested at his barracks in September 2024 after police found online messages with racist views, a wish to form a militia, and an intention to make homemade firearms and sell them to right-wing groups. Mixed · 2At his home address police found knives, crossbows, black powder, ammunition and air pistols, as well as what police described as "an improvised homemade cannon". Reuters specified 9mm ammunition.

Mixed · 2Broadhurst pleaded guilty to firearm possession and to making or possessing an explosive under suspicious circumstances, but denied he held them for terrorism purposes; a judge ruled the offences were connected to terrorism. Mixed · 2He was in a Telegram group with three other men who were jailed last year for a combined 29 years for planning an attack on mosques or synagogues as part of what they believed to be a coming "race war". Right · 1Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said Broadhurst was "clearly interested in violence and developing weapons that had the ability to cause untold harm to innocent people" and had kept close contact with three convicted terrorists inspired by SS tactics and supremacist ideology.

Left · 1Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, who heads counter-terrorism policing in the northeastern region, said Broadhurst had an "extreme right-wing mindset" and was "proactively ordering components to make explosives". Left · 1Al Jazeera placed the case against rising racial tensions and hate crime in the UK, noting that police arrested 12 people in July over an alleged far-right threat to an Islamic gathering in eastern England.

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left1 outlet

Framing
Al Jazeera leads with the terror-related conviction and sets it in a context of rising racial tension and hate crime in the UK.
Emphasis
Police quote on extreme right-wing mindset and ordering explosive components; wider hate-crime backdrop.
Leaves out or plays down
Does not give the exact sentence length, the barracks arrest or the militia aim.
Charged language
“terror”“terrorist purposes”
For example
“His conviction comes against a backdrop of rising racial tensions and hate crimes in the UK, with marginalised communities increasingly targeted.” — Al Jazeera

Centre0 outlets

No centre outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

Right1 outlet

Framing
The Straits Times runs Reuters copy giving a straightforward crime report with the exact sentence and the prosecutor's statement.
Emphasis
Barracks arrest, militia aim, link to the convicted Telegram group, prosecutor's comments.
Leaves out or plays down
No wider hate-crime context and no police counter-terrorism quote.
Charged language
“race war”
For example
“was jailed for nearly four years on Wednesday after he was arrested with a homemade gun and explosives.” — The Straits Times

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