A jobless white supremacist from west Cumbria wanted to achieve notoriety by carrying out a massacre at the town's Uppies and Downies event, a jury has heard.

Shane Fletcher, 21, who was said to admire the notorious west Cumbrian mass killer Derrick Bird, also regarded the US Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as "legends", say prosecutors.

He wanted to take revenge on those he felt had made his life unhappy, the prosecution have alleged.

It is said that Fletcher targeted the town's traditional Uppies and Downies event - where large numbers of participants and spectators gather every Easter for three football matches played in the streets throughout the night.

Opening the case at Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford said: "By early 2018, the Crown says the defendant had formed the intention to commit a murderous mass attack in his home town of Workington in Cumbria. His motive was not terrorism, but hatred and a desire for revenge.

"It would appear that in part his hatred was borne of his racist belief that people who were Jewish and not white were responsible for his inability to find work and to make any kind of a meaningful life for himself.

"He had, or felt he had, been bullied throughout his teenage years by other people in Workington, who he felt had looked down on him and victimised him.

"The Crown says that, like the Columbine killers, he wanted to take revenge on those he blamed for his unhappy life. He wanted to achieve notoriety by going on a killing spree before killing himself."

Mr Sandiford said Fletcher did not want to act alone, and had tried to recruit his only friend, Kyle Dixon, to agree to join him in the Uppies and Downies attack in April 2018.

The prosecutor said Mr Dixon was a young man with "significant problems" who had suffered a brain injury and was prone to fits.

Although Mr Dixon had initially expressed some enthusiasm, it happily appeared to peter out, he told the jury.

Fletcher also disclosed to a probation officer he had fantasised carrying out a massacre at the Uppies and Downies, but added the only thing stopping him was a lack of cash and no access to weapons, the court heard.

The police were alerted, and days later on March 10 the defendant was arrested at his home in Wastwater Avenue - which he shared with his mother and brothers.

Fletcher has pleaded not guilty to one count of soliciting murder and two counts of collecting or making a record of information useful for terrorism purposes, namely instructions on how to make a pipe bomb and how to make napalm or an improvised version of napalm.

Mr Sandiford said Facebook Messenger conversations in January last year between Fletcher and Mr Dixon formed the crux of the prosecution case.

The Crown say Fletcher sent Mr Dixon instructions on how to make a pipe bomb, which an explosives expert had deemed were viable instructions.

The jury was told Fletcher attended weekly meetings with a probation officer between April 2017 and March last year.

Between May 2017 and October 2017, the defendant made comments that revealed he harboured racist views and a belief in white supremacy, Mr Sandiford said.

The prosecution added that Fletcher was also noted to have begun to express a dislike of Workington, saying it was full of drug users, robbers and people carrying knives.

On January 23 2018, the defendant referred to taxi driver Bird and how easy he thought it would be to use a van as a weapon at the Uppies and Downies event, the court was told, but had maintained it was a fantasy.

On March 6 he again mentioned Uppies and Downies as a target and referred to the Columbine and Hungerford mass shootings and how he could watch them "on repeat 10 times in a row", the prosecutor said.

The court was told the probation officer notified police of his concerns and Fletcher was arrested.

Among items seized at his home was a mobile phone which contained three images of the defendant appearing to give a Nazi salute, while an iPad recovered from the address contained images depicting the Ku Klux Klan, the jury was told.

Police also found a diary, under a sofa, which was, the Crown said, in effect a journal recording his private thoughts, feelings and intentions.

Among the entries were instructions on how to make a pipe bomb and napalm, the jury was told.

The court heard Fletcher had also written: "On the 4th April Workington will be oblitrated, everything and everyone will be destroyed.

"I have started this diary counting down the days to WM witch will be the most exciting day of my life I plan."

The Crown suggests WM stands for Workington Massacre.

When interviewed, the jury was told Fletcher denied he had been planning or intending to commit a mass attack and told detectives he never had the actual urge to kill someone and was not planning on using the bomb instructions. He said his probation officer had told him to write his thoughts and feelings down in the diary as a "coping strategy".