A conspiracy theorist – who plotted an attack on communication masts and the M1 motorway to bring down Boris Johnson’s government – has seen his terrorist parole case become the first to be heard in public.
Oliver Lewin, 41, had expressed hostility towards Jews and the state of Israel – believing that the UK government was being run by a Jewish elite, including Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock.
Both politicians are self-confessed Christians.
Lewin has told his parole hearing he now feels “a healthy amount of respect” for Israeli people.
The parole hearing
The telecoms engineer from Coalville, Leicestershire, spread ideas online that the COVID vaccine would kill anyone who took it and that the UK government was complicit in a high-level conspiracy originating from Israel.
In Summer 2021, undercover police officers found that he had joined a Telegram group called Resistance UK and purported to support this agenda.
86-year-old man arrested in connection with murder of couple 32 years ago
Aria Thorpe: Images released of girl, 9, stabbed to death – as boy appears in court charged with murder
Obamas planned to see Reiners the night they were killed, says ex-US first lady
Lewin was questioned by a panel at the hearing on Thursday, which he had requested was held in public.
Parole Board hearings are usually held in private, but can be held in public when the chair decides it is in the interests of justice.
The rule change enabling public parole hearings only occurred in 2022 and, until now, none of those allowed had involved people convicted of terror offences.
Lewin, 41, told the panel: “The reason I applied to have this hearing held in public was more to do with the fact that I was getting more and more irate with the amount of errors in the dossier (of evidence for the parole board).”
He told the hearing he plans to apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission because he believes his conviction was unfair.
The panel also heard he has a “grievance” against undercover officers and counter-terrorism police.
‘I can’t help but feel for them’
When Lewin was sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment in 2023, Judge Paul Farrer KC concluded that Lewin had “expressed hostility towards Jewish people” in messages he sent.
Asked whether Lewin still believes Israel is controlling the UK government, he said “quite the opposite”.
He told the hearing that he had seen the 7 October attacks and subsequent Israeli retaliation and couldn’t find himself in favour of Israel or Hamas.
However, he said he has read the Torah and the Old Testament and found his beliefs align closer to Judaism.
“The existence (of Israel) as a country has always been a struggle, it’s always been hard for them, and there is a bit of sympathy there.
“Once you actually understand the wider story, I can’t help but feel for them. Not admiration but certainly a healthy amount of respect.”
Lewin denied that he is opposed to the prison de-radicalisation programme, called Healthy Identity Intervention (HII), but said he was concerned that it “focuses too much on identity politics”.
Read more from Sky News:
Actors vote for industrial action over AI concerns
£20m is to be paid out to survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing
He said: “I didn’t want it to be a Soviet-style re-education because a political opinion, whether you like it or not, is a protected characteristic.”
Lewin, who is autistic, told the panel he suffers discrimination in prison because of his autism “all the time”.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
‘We don’t understand ideological drivers’
Giving evidence to the hearing, Lewin’s prison offender manager said that he would recommend Lewin is released and said that he does not believe he presents a serious risk of harm to the public.
Lewin served more than 500 days in custody before he was convicted and could be eligible for release after serving two-thirds of his custodial sentence, by 30 December this year.
Asked whether Lewin holds antisemitic views, the prison offender manager said he did not believe he did but said he has used discriminatory language in the past.
Lewin’s prison psychologist said she would not recommend he was released until he had completed a de-radicalisation programme.
She told the panel she does not believe his risk of reoffending is “imminent” but could become serious depending on his behaviour once he is released.
“I don’t feel like we fully understand the ideological drivers,” the psychologist said.
Lewin said he would not react in the same way as he did previously if the government announced something he did not like or agree with.
The panel will hear more evidence in private one day next week and will issue its decision 14 days after the final oral hearing.
