Imprisoned Neo-Nazi ‘monster’ now claims he has racialized friends

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Well, that’s a relief.

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Now-reformed Neo-Nazi Matthew Althorpe insists he’s made friends in jail who aren’t white and has renounced the white supremacist propaganda he produced for years that inspired terrorists worldwide.

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“Instead of working to elevate myself, I harmed the lives of strangers all over the world in the most insidious ways possible,” Althorpe told the court Friday in Toronto, reading from his letter.

“I became a complete monster at times and that monster is all that most people will know until I can prove myself otherwise.”

Wearing a dark suit and white dress shirt, Althorpe, 30, stood before the court to explain his new world outlook at a hearing to determine how many years he should spend behind bars following his guilty plea last fall to three terror-related crimes, including wilfully promoting hate against Jews and other minority groups.

Last month, federal prosecutors urged Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly to impose a tough 20-year term less pre-sentence credits with no chance of parole for 10 years.

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In defence submissions, lawyer Robb MacDonald said a 10 to 12-year sentence is more appropriate for a remorseful, vulnerable, first-offender with an undiagnosed mental illness.

“He wasn’t locked and loaded,” MacDonald argued. “Mr. Althorpe’s behavior was vile. Admittedly it was criminal, but he still sits in a different category than those who assembled detonators and who laid out plans to blow up specific targets.”

MacDonald admitted his client’s racist manifestos were “wicked” but claimed Althorpe was only responsible for “talk” – not action.

Not quite.

At Althorpe’s guilty plea in October 2025, Crown attorney Amber Pashuk played three shocking neo-Nazi recruitment Atomwaffen Division videos produced by Althorpe that called on recruits to join AWD’s race wars, create cells and inflict merciless violence on their enemies.

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According to the agreed statement, Althorpe also co-wrote three manifestos on Terrogram, a network of Telegram channels promoting military accelerationism, which aims to provoke a race war and replace “decadent” society with a white ethnostate. He called for violence against Jews and other racial minorities and offered his followers detailed instructions for bombing infrastructures.

His hateful rhetoric had real-world ramifications: again, according to the agreed statement, his manifestos were cited in at least six terror attacks or plots, including a Slovakian attack on patrons of an LGBTQ bar that killed two people and a school shooting in Brazil that killed four.

“Pray for terror,” Althorpe instructed. “Hatred will set our race free.”

In his pre-sentence report, Althorpe told forensic psychiatrist Dr. Alina Iosif that he was a “fanatic” who has now changed. But he also admitted he hasn’t completely left that head space.
“Sometimes I wake up at night and I am the same racist guy,” she quoted him saying. “I have to show remorse for court but transparency for you.”

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Iosif diagnosed him with borderline personality disorder and found he was intelligent, articulate and a good candidate for therapy.

Ripe for indoctrination

His lawyer said Althorpe had been a “ticking time bomb” – he was sexually abused as a child, lived in a home fraught with alcoholism and suffered from an untreated mental health issue.

“He was ripe for indoctrination,” MacDonald said.

Althorpe agreed in his lengthy and eloquent “letter from the heart.”

“I allowed my own problems to manifest in such a hostile way that brought about the demise of people that I’ve never even met, whether direct or indirect isn’t important,” he admitted.

Since his arrest in December 2023, Althorpe said he’s engaged in self-reflection and realized he prioritized “evil” even over his family. He now has a child he’s never held and a fiancée still waiting to be wed.

He’s played board games with inmates from other cultures, read scriptures from other religions and books by Black authors, and he does weekly Bible study with Jehovah’s Witnesses. He’s learned about the “peaceful nature of Islam” from a cellmate and Medicine Wheel teachings from another who is “Native American.”

“I’m very unhappy with myself looking at things now,” Althorpe said. “The very individuals who have helped me every step of the journey and continue to help me so much are the ones that I set out to hurt by broadcasting calls for their destruction and demise.”

So has this former white supremacist really seen the error of his ways?

Iosif had advised caution.

“The racist militant accelerationist likely lies not far beneath the surface.”

The judge is scheduled to deliver her sentencing verdict on March 27.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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