A Chadderton man has gone on trial accused of possessing the Anarchist Cookbook - a prohibited item which contains instructions on how to make a bomb.

Oliver Bel appeared in the dock at Manchester Crown Court Crown Square today where he is said to have had the item which is useful to someone preparing to commit an act of terror.

The 23-year-old admits he had the book but claims it was for academic interest. Opening the case, prosecutor Joe Allman outlined the far right wing views of Bel which were discovered in online forums.

He said: “This case concerns Mr Bel buying and keeping a manual of terrorism, the Anarchist Cookbook. That book contains information which was likely to be useful to someone committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.”

He said it contained information on how to make Gelignite and Nitroglycerin and said “both of these substances are highly explosive.”

He went on to say: “The background is this, Mr Bel harboured and possibly still does harbour extreme right wing views.”

He said he had posted these on social media and had been contacted by an officer at the Prevent programme while he was studying maths at Pembroke College at Cambridge University.

Mr Allman said Bel has declared himself a national socialist and described Jews as engaged in “nepotism” and “responsible for the communist revolution and pretty much every other progressive movement since then.”

He added Bel said “extermination” was the best option and only 200,000 Jews had died in the Holocaust and Hitler had not been responsible.

As well as this he often expressed a desire to go on a “spree” and said he had “lost a homosexual friend because of my views on his behaviour, good riddance.”

Mr Allman said police attended at the property where Bel had been staying on Eccles Road in Salford on November 2019.

He said they were looking at a copy of the book “Hitler’s Table Talk 1941 to 1944 when Bel said “I have got more extremist material than that, I have got the Anarchist Cookbook on my bedroom shelves.”

Mr Allman said on a phone which Bel had hidden they found activity on the application Telegram where he had made contact with a former member of National Action, a far right group banned in 2016 and expressed a belief in “preserving racial superiority.”

Representing Bel, of Ferneyfield Road, Chadderton, defence counsel Abigail Bright outlined his defence.

She said under section 58 of the Terrorism Act a person can have a reasonable excuse if possessing the material was for academic interest.

She told the jury of eight men and four women: “If that might be true then you must acquit.”

The trial, before Judge Alan Conrad QC, continues.