A radicalised white supremacist who was stockpiling homemade guns and weapons across Sydney had expressed an intention to commit a mass shooting at a popular Westfield shopping centre.
The disturbing case, uncovered by the Sun Herald, has highlighted the evolving threat posed by violent, right-wing extremism in Australia with experts warning against public complacency.
Michael James Holt, 26, pleaded guilty recently to several firearm manufacture and possession charges after police found a large stash across three properties in 2015.
The unemployed college drop-out is infatuated with neo-Nazi ideology and once told a school friend that he dreamed of walking through the school shooting students and teachers, an agreed statement of facts tendered in Penrith Local Court said.
He told his school counsellor that Adolf Hitler was "the greatest person to live".
On his online profiles, he has posted pro-gun violence and anti-government rants, uploaded videos of homemade guns and made "disturbing" posts about killing himself and others after a failed relationship.
"The offender is not discrete [sic] with his opinions and is extremely outspoken ... with regards to his views on gun crime, gun laws and violence," the agreed statement of facts said.
A caller to Crime Stoppers, whose information proved consistent with several aspects of the investigation, said Holt had expressed a desire to engage in an "indiscriminate public place shooting" and had considered carrying it out at Tuggerah Westfield on the Central Coast.
In a surprising turn, Holt is being represented by Muslim community advocate and lawyer Lydia Shelly. She declined to comment on the case.
Deradicalisation academics have also put him in touch with a reformed white supremacist who is helping to change his views.
Holt, who dropped out of a business degree at Evocca College in Gosford, is not believed to be associated with any far right groups and is largely a loner with developmental difficulties.
Until his arrest in September 2015, he divided his time between his mother's house in Windsor, his grandfather's house in nearby Hobartville and room five at the Tall Timbers pub hotel in Ourimbah.
In July 2015, the Firearms Squad received a tip-off that he was manufacturing homemade guns, knuckle dusters and slingshots in his grandfather's garage.
A month later, when Holt attended the "Big Show" Militaria, Guns Collectibles Fair in Toowoomba, he was caught with a knife and knuckledusters and was charged by Queensland police.
The caller led police to the Tall Timbers Hotel, where Holt had eight firearms hidden in the cupboards and a flick knife and slingshot in the fridge of his rented room.
Many of the homemade guns were known as "slam fire" guns, capable of firing a single shot.
Pipes and other gun parts, hand drawings relating to making guns, Nazi memorabilia and white supremacy propaganda were also found.
"Of particular concern, it was reported that the offender often talked about loading weapons into his vehicle and driving to a very public place where he would 'just start shooting it up' most recently saying he wanted to do this to Westfields at Tuggerah," the statement of facts said.
After his arrest in September 2015, a raid of his mother's home unearthed knuckle dusters, sling shots, gun parts, ammunition and a further nine unregistered or imitation pistols including a loaded "slam fire" gun on a lounge-room table that children had access to.
Holt has Asperger's syndrome and low intellectual capability yet was described by one friend as an angry "genius" whose homemade guns showed incredible skill.
He had several books and diagrams on gun manufacturing and had "liked" many YouTube tutorials.
On one online profile, he described himself as "anti-system, anti-religion, anti-politics, pro-gun" and professes a love of "shotgun death metal music" and heavy metal tracks with titles like "End It With A Shotgun" and "Carnal Decay".
He listed his job as boss of the Reaper's Disciples Private Security Company and wrote: "I will do anything for those i love" and "Ausfailia can go to Hell".
A friend of Holt's, who never met him but spent hours talking to him on pro-libertarian forums, said he was an angry man who had "zero tolerance for government oppression and overbearing nanny state interference".
He said Holt had previously been persecuted by authorities and had a mental state "which would easily be radicalised".
"Obviously he fell through the cracks when he just needed some help, everyone became his enemy," the friend, who didn't want to be named, said.
"He ended up looking like he must've been one of those Asperger's genius people after I saw police pictures of home-made contraptions he engineered."
He said Holt made no secret of his neo-Nazi views.
"Should it be wrong to be proud of a Teutonic heritage? No. However, being proud to be who you are if you are white instantly gets one a stigma if mentioned in public. Asperger's obviously has little comprehension of this," he said.
He believed Holt liked owning guns because it made him realise he was "a slave to no tyrannical government". However, he had been banned from holding a licence because of his troubled youth.
Court documents state that Holt first attracted police attention at 15 when he was seen walking around local shops with a pistol that turned out to be a toy.
He was caught with three knives at school in 2005 and had concerning social media posts passed on to police in 2014 and 2015.
"I honestly don't think he would act out anything evil," the friend said. "Just a big mouth with no political correctness filter."
While Sunni Islamist extremism is the major terrorism threat facing Australia, violent anti-Islamic and white nationalist extremism is growing, ASIO director Duncan Lewis said last year.
"It has come off a low base. But it has presented, really, probably in the last 18 months or so," he told a senate hearing.
In August, Melbourne man Phillip Galea became the first right-wing extremist to be charged with terrorism offences, triggering experts to warn about public complacency.
Greg Barton, counter-terrorism expert at Deakin University, said political developments in Europe and America were fanning the existing flames of extremism in Australia.
"One of the things you want Australians to pay attention to is recognising that hateful speech and incitement to hatred in the political field is not just something that remains a political play," he said.
"It has the potential to give people a sense of a green light to be more outrageous in their opinions and eventually those individuals have some sort of social license to try some sort of attack."
Much like other forms of extremism, he said vulnerable young people looking for a sense of belonging are targeted by recruiters. However, others may have no "visible network on the ground" but extensive online activity.
"The limiting factor with right-wing extremism in Australia is leadership. It's very poorly organised but the worry is that could turn around very quickly," he said.
"Whenever I talk to law enforcement agencies, they always put the right-wing threat as being higher not because of the probability right now but they can see it coming just over the horizon."
ASIO and the AFP recently revealed that they have a close eye on many right-wing extremists. Counter-terrorism grants in NSW have been allocated to groups such as All Together Now, formerly known as Exit White Power, which works to undermine recruitment of white nationalists.
Holt will be sentenced in March.