A neo-Nazi terrorist who was found guilty last month of the attempted murder of an asylum seeker is a prolific online stalker who had previously been jailed and referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme, the Observer can reveal. Callum Parslow was convicted on 25 October of attempted murder after stabbing an asylum seeker at a hotel in April. It can now be revealed he was jailed in 2018 for targeting 10 women and girls with messages describing sexually motivated murder, torture and rape, and then changed his name after his release. Callum Blake-O’Brien, as he was formerly known, was referred to the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme in 2019 but no further action was taken. He was then arrested again last year for targeting another woman with sexual and racist messages. Two of Parslow’s victims said they asked police whether he posed a physical threat, but were assured he was a “loner” and a “saddo” who was only a risk online. They feel their concerns were not taken seriously enough by police. On 2 April, Parslow launched a stabbing attack on an asylum seeker at the Pear Tree Inn, near Worcester, and police found multiple weapons including knives and an axe at his home. At the time, the 32-year-old was on bail and awaiting trial for his most recent offences against women, which followed a similar pattern to the abuse he was jailed for in 2018. Parslow was targeting Mercy Muroki, a policy researcher and former GB News presenter, from multiple accounts under fake names on Facebook, Instagram and X.
Among the messages sent in July and August 2023 were videos of himself performing sexual acts and footage of a black woman being flogged. “The message he sent was about him fantasising that this would happen to me,” said Muroki, who has chosen to waive her anonymity.
As well as reporting the direct messages from Parslow to police, she sent investigators screengrabs of his wider violent and white supremacist posts on social media. Muroki, 29, said she raised concerns about whether Parslow could pose a physical threat to her, but was told that it was “unlikely”, partly because he lived in a different county and did not have a car. Officers said that in interviews he had admitted his online activity reflected his true beliefs but said he had only messaged Muroki because “he found it difficult to speak to women he fancies”. Speaking to the Observer, Muroki said: “I said to the police: ‘This is clearly a very deranged person who is fixated on the far-right stuff and on me – do I need to be worried that he might escalate it to something in person?’ “They were kind of like: ‘Oh no, don’t worry.’ They said he seems like a bit of a loner, a bit of a saddo. That’s how they characterised him – just a sad person on a computer – whereas actually I feel that the content he had posted demonstrated it was way past some keyboard warrior stuff.”
When police searched Parslow’s flat in Worcester on 13 December 2023, they found a stockpile of Nazi memorabilia, two copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and numerous other far-right books, and seized Parslow’s phone and laptop. But he was only charged with offences related to his messages to Muroki, and evidence presented to Leicester crown court suggested he started preparations in earnest for a terror attack soon after being released on bail. Muroki said the material at Parslow’s flat “demonstrated he was a far-right lunatic but, had he not then gone on to stab somebody, I don’t know the extent to which they would have taken any of that stuff seriously”. She added: “I didn’t feel like the fact he was clearly a far-right risk was something they would have followed up on.” Parslow was arrested shortly after fleeing the scene of the hotel stabbing on 2 April, having been found by police while trying to post a terrorist manifesto on X.
As well as focusing on his white supremacist beliefs and calls for further attacks, the document was peppered with misogynist references. He called white women “alcoholic sluts” who “have as many abortions as possible” and claimed there was a conspiracy to “demonise masculinity”. Research commissioned by counter-terrorism policing in 2021 showed a “striking prevalence” of domestic abuse in the lives of people referred to the Prevent programme. Muroki said: “I felt like the police were a bit dismissive about my concerns that he might actually do something after I reported him. “When I saw [news of the attack], I felt [like] my concerns were well founded – he was someone willing to do something like that. I think they should have taken the fact he was a risk a lot more seriously.” Muroki said she was shocked that Parslow had been able to legally change his name after his release from prison in 2020. As Blake-O’Brien, he had been given a 30-month prison sentence in February 2018 for stalking and harassing 10 women and girls online. Parslow was initially released from jail in 2019 but was recalled for breaching his licence conditions and served his full term in custody, which meant he was freed without a period of probation supervision and the only restrictions remaining were restraining orders issued to protect his victims. One of the women who brought the original case against Parslow, who was just 17 years old when his crimes against her began, said that her initial attempts to report him to police were rebuffed. “They said he wasn’t a real threat,” she recalled. “I was turned down by the police multiple times before being taken seriously. He never stopped harassing women … this is just the proof of it now.” The woman said that finding out that Parslow had been able to commit further offences against Muroki and then a terror attack made her feel as if “fighting for justice against him was a waste of my time”. She added: “It took me a long time to trust people and heal from everything he said. I thought I would never have to hear his name again in my life, but hearing about him committing these types of crimes, and new violent crimes, makes me feel sick.” Parslow, originally from Hereford, studied physics at Swansea University but dropped out without completing his degree.
At the time he committed the terror attack in April, he was living in Worcester and working as a computer programmer for a local manufacturer. Parslow’s attempted murder trial was subject to reporting restrictions after he denied three offences against Muroki, because he was due to face a separate trial later this month and his defence team argued the jury would be prejudiced by media coverage. But after being found guilty of attempted murder, he immediately pleaded guilty to two counts of malicious communications and one of online exposure. Parslow will be sentenced for both cases at Woolwich crown court in London in January. A spokesperson for West Mercia police said that Parslow was identified for offences against Muroki after his social media accounts were linked to an IP address at his Worcester home. “He was released on bail, with bail conditions appropriate to the nature of the offences,” a statement added. “The investigation progressed at pace and remained ongoing at the time he carried out the attack at the Pear Tree Inn.”