He spread ideas online that the Covid-19 vaccine would kill anyone who took it
Counter Terrorism officers saw Lewin preparing his plot by dressing in camoflage(Image: West Midlands Police/Counter Terrorism Police)
A man jailed for plotting to attack phone masts and who expressed hostility towards Jewish people as part of a plan to bring down the Government does not present a risk to the public, a parole hearing has been told.
Telecoms engineer Oliver Lewin, from Coalville, had spread conspiracy theories online that the Covid-19 vaccine would kill anyone who took it and that the UK government was complicit in a high-level conspiracy originating from Israel.
Undercover police officers found that in summer 2021 he had joined a Telegram group called Resistance UK and purported to support his agenda.
Lewin was questioned by a panel at the hearing on Thursday (December 18), which he requested was held in public.
The 41-year-old, who wore a bright blue T-shirt, 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).
“This to me was an opportunity to get it all out in the open and deal with it.”
He told the hearing he plans to apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission because he believes his conviction was unfair, and the parole panel heard he has a “grievance” against undercover officers and counter- terrorism police.
Counter Terrorism officers saw Lewin preparing his plot by dressing in camoflage(Image: West Midlands Police/Counter Terrorism Police)
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”.
“I saw the October 7 attacks and saw this retaliation and I couldn’t for the life of me decide which way it was,” he told the hearing, which is taking place in a prison and being video-streamed to a room at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in central London.
“They (Hamas) shouldn’t have done that and they (Israel) are overreacting to it. I couldn’t find myself in favour of one or the other,” Lewin said.
He told the hearing 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.”
Oliver Lewin told his parole hearing he has ‘a healthy amount of respect’ for Jewish people(Image: West Midlands Police)
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”.
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.”
“I wholly reject being called an extremist, I don’t like it, I think it’s a smear out there to demerit political views,” he added.
Lewin, who is autistic, told the panel he suffers discrimination in prison because of his autism “all the time”.
“Exploitation in this place is rife,” he said.
“I like rules, rules bring order to the day, the rules to me are the king of everything. I am trying to stick to these things by the letter, by the book.
“These people (other prisoners) have their own morality code amongst themselves.
“I don’t understand it and I don’t want to understand it.”
Giving evidence to the hearing, which is the first terrorist parole case to be heard in public, 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 Tuesday, December 30.
The media, transport and infrastructure were among the targets found in Lewin’s manual(Image: West Midlands Police/Counter Terrorism Police)
“I think for quite a chunk of his adult life he showed himself to be someone aware of the law, with an ability to comply with the law,” the prison offender manager told the hearing.
Asked whether Lewin holds anti-Semitic 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. “So I can’t say that risk can be managed in that area.”
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.
“For the best part of three years I’ve been locked in a concrete box, I didn’t want that, but it happened anyway,” Lewin said.
“What this place has taught me is patience. This place has given me the gift to accept that some things are out of your control.”
The panel will hear more evidence in private one day next week and will issue its decision 14 days after the final oral hearing.
