Conspiracy theorist does not present risk to public, parole hearing told

A conspiracy theorist who plotted to attack phone masts as part of a plan to bring down the Government and expressed hostility towards Jews has told his parole hearing he now feels “a healthy amount of respect” for Jewish people.

Oliver Lewin, 41, a 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.

Undercover police officers found, in summer 2021, that 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, 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.”

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.”

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, 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 December 30 this year.

“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 antisemitic views, the prison offender manager said he did not believe he did, but said he has used discriminatory language in the past.

he said: “The hostility towards Jewish people is potentially a concern, but when I was considering that my position was – when the CPS charged Lewin, they charged him with a single offence.

“I know many people at that time are also charged with incitement of hatred… the language he used did not cross that threshold.”

The hearing continues.