A Nazi-obsessed teenage girl who called herself the 'embodiment of hell' and launched an axe attack on a stranger outside a barber's shop has been jailed for more than 15 years. 

Alina Burns, then 18, attempted to repeatedly strike Mohammed Mahmoodi, a 27-year-old Iranian Kurd, with the weapon on August 2 2025 in Bedminster, Bristol. 

CCTV from inside the barber shop BHK captured Burns as she swung an axe at Mr Mahmoodi's neck from behind while he chatted with a friend. When he realised what was happening, Mr Mahmoodi then turned and ducked - closely missing the blade. 

Burns, who had a shaved head and wore a black padded jacket, went to strike her victim again but was stopped after Mr Mahmoodi grabbed her hand, pulling the axe from it. 

Police arrested Burns at the scene, who left Mr Mahmoodi with three scratches on his neck and cheek, and found she was also carrying a scalpel and a number of darts. 

Bristol Crown Court heard Burns shared her violent 'plan' with a man she met on a dating site, who alerted the police about his concerns months before the August attack. This included a wish to 'kill all' British Jews and Muslims.

Burns, who was in contact with far-right group Patriotic Alternative, wrote in an email to the man she met on dating site Duolicious: 'I've realised my role in existence: I am the embodiment of hell, destined to annihilate everything holy I bear witness to.'

The teenager referred to carrying out a 'plan' and said she wanted 'all the credit and glory', adding it was her 'purpose/meaning in life'. 

In a second email on March 20 last year, Burns wrote: 'I don't want to end my life anymore. I plan on bringing change to the UK through means I can't detail.' 

After the man said he would do anything for her, the court heard she replied: 'Yeah, I shared too much for that. Kill all the Jews and Muslim in Britain please.'

When he responded it would not solve anything, Burns said: 'Nah it'll solve heaps. I'm dead serious, do it. I think being the catalyst for change in my nation is far more important. I need to be a force of something, have agency in the outcome of history.'

Detectives discovered Burns exchanged a series of messages with the group Patriotic Alternative and looked up their 'plan for the United Kingdom'.

Patriotic Alternative was founded in 2019 by Mark Collett, a Neo-Nazi who calls for a 'racially pure white society' and led the BNP's youth wing before the party expelled him. 

The court was told the group called for an end to immigration and the 'repatriation' of non-whites and Jews to their 'ancestral homelands'.

Seized diaries and notebooks belonging to Burns revealed 'copious details' about weapons used by the Nazi SS and German military units in WWII. 

While the court heard Burns on July 30 searched online 'what age can you buy an axe UK', 'is an axe a good weapon for home defence' and 'how to properly use an axe for self-defence'.

Burns the next day searched videos on YouTube, including one about Patrick Cruisius called: 'The deranged mass killer who became a meme.'

Cruisius killed 23 people during a mass shooting in a Walmart supermarket directed at Latin Americans in El Paso, Texas.

An email she wrote to herself on August 1, the day before the attack, was titled: 'The dawn of civil war'. It read: 'Land is reclaimed through terror' and that it was 'better if they flee out of fear rather than displace us in our own home.'

The court heard the night before the attack, she used her laptop to view a YouTube video of an SS march in Nazi Germany and searched the platform for a video titled: 'How to fight with an axe: combat lesson 1 - defeat your enemy.'

There were also searches for a number of graphic 'gore' videos including one of a man fatally stabbed in the neck, of women stabbing other people and on how to use darts as a weapon.

Other searches included copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf, the far-right Turner Diaries about a race war and a search for Turkish Barbers in Bristol.

Serena Gates KC, prosecuting, said Burns had 'a desire for a white England, achieved if necessary through terror'.

Burns, who lived with her parents and younger siblings, was described as being 'likely to have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)' and had thoughts of self-harm. 

Despite both of her parents being teachers, she stopped going to school at 14. The court heard her family became homeless and lived in a series of temporary accommodation. 

On the day of the attack, Burns told her father she was going to a bookshop and instead went to Screw Fix to buy an axe. 

During an assessment by a mental health practitioner, Burns said she had spent about a week making a plan and asked if the attack was 'in the news yet?'

She said she wanted 'to influence people to do the same thing but be successful' and, asked if she had any thoughts or plans to harm others, she said she 'would go on again but to succeed'.

Burns told a probation officer after her arrest she was planning to kill her victim 'or people of similar nationality selling fake or out-of-date goods' and that they were 'degrading the streets and the police should have kicked them out.'

Mr Mahmoodi escaped with three painful scratches to his neck and cheek. 

In a victim personal statement Mr Mahmoodi said he come to Britain seeking the 'safety freedom and protection' he did not have in his country and was still living with the mental effects of the attack.

Burns pleaded guilty to attempted murder and three charges of carrying a bladed weapon in a public place. 

The judge, Mrs Justice Lambert sentenced Burns on Friday to 15 years and six months in prison and an extended licence of four years.

She told Burns she had continued to show 'entrenched hostility' to homosexuals and had recently destroyed books in the prison library

She added: 'You present a high risk of causing serious harm to the public, particularly racial minorities, from a continued justification of violence.'

Detective Superintendent Sarah Robbins, from Counter-Terrorism Policing South West, said: 'It is extremely fortunate that this vicious attack, which saw an innocent man have an axe swung at his neck, didn't result in the loss of life.

'It is our view that Burns carried out this dreadful attack because of her distorted beliefs and extreme mindset. From everything we know and the evidence we gathered, we believe she targeted the victim because she perceived him to be either an immigrant, an ethnicity which she held contempt for, or both.

'We are grateful for the support we have received from the public during this investigation, and we will continue to work closely with Avon and Somerset Police to reassure those affected, both the victim and the local community.'