The name of the Hawke's Bay extremist who planned a mass knife attack on a mosque or mall has been released after suppression applications were denied.
Ronndog Elliott Keefe, 22, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison last year.
He pleaded guilty to 13 charges at the Napier District Court related to indecent communications, objectionable material, and threatening to commit a mass stabbing attack.
Born and raised in Hastings, Keefe lived at his home address, located a 15-minute drive from the Hawke's Bay region's sole mosque, while committing the crimes.
Police searched Keefe's home on August 20, 2024, seized two electronic devices containing more than 2300 sexual abuse and exploitation images, including images and videos of child sexual abuse, bestiality and necrophilia.
The devices also contained terrorist and violent extremist content.
A further investigation led to the identification of several of the man’s victims, including a child under the age of 16, who he had solicited sexually explicit images from.
The Department of Internal Affairs said it received an alert from the FBI on September 28, 2024, that a man planned to commit a mass stabbing attack at a mosque or mall on the date of his next court appearance.
The FBI had been notified after receiving a tip from Keefe's online associates.
Two bladed weapons were subsequently found in his bedroom by police, including a bayonet he said would be used in the attack.
A manifesto was also found which detailed how he had been radicalised at age 19 and that he had planned a mass attack targeting Muslim men.
Keefe claimed to have been active in several violent online gaming and social media platforms with links to an extremist group known as 764.
The groups targeted children, the LGBTQIA+ community and other vulnerable people, enticing targeted victims to share nude images and engage in self-harm, before using the material as leverage for extortion.
Detective Inspector James Keene said the man "preyed on the innocence of children by distributing horrific child abuse and exploitation images online, including personally requesting explicit images from a teenager".
"Any threats of mass harm, such as in this case, are always of concern to police, which is why we moved quickly to arrest this man, and sought to detain him in custody."
Keefe has been before the courts for several years while waiting to be sentenced and battling name suppression.
At the Napier District Court today, the Crown prosecutor argued that because the defendant had changed his intent to some charges — claiming to have been doxed by the extremist group 764 — the Crown did not see reasons to continue name suppression.
At sentencing last year, Judge Richard Earwaker described the man's offending as "repugnant".
"It's clear that it's deliberate, it's premeditated, and what it reflects, as I found, is your own gratification of not only sharing it but also viewing this material," he said.
"And, because of the way that you've distributed this material, there's no way of knowing how many people have accessed the content. It is very important to emphasise that this type of offending is not a victimless crime."
Earwaker said the man's crimes perpetuated "sexual abuse of children and drives exploitation and offending against children all over the world".
"This is made worse by the re-victimisation of the children as the material is distributed and redistributed online, so you need to be held accountable for the harm your involvement in this offending causes and perpetuates."
As part of his sentence, the judge ordered the man be registered as a child sex offender and the devices used during his offending to be destroyed.
Police said they received constant reports of extremism with more than half related to white supremacy.
New Zealand Police director of national security Sean Hanson revealed in an exclusive interview with 1News officers typically dealt with 10 extremist tip-offs a week, or around 40 a month.
"Commonly, what we see now is we receive about 40 pieces of information that we treat as a lead per month, which require us to do some work. Many of them we discount relatively quickly," he said.
"Some of them will require some investigative work and a very, very small number result in us treating it as a case of violent extremism.”
He added: “Unlike many of our close international partners, the most significant proportion - more than 50% of the cases that we deal with - involve what we categorise as identity-motivated violent extremism or white identity extremism or white supremacy. That forms more than 50% of our case load.”
He said the Internet was responsible for much of the radicalising influence they see, consistent with what many other countries experience.
He urged the public to notify police early if they notice concerning behaviour online, saying it's easier to help early.
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