A MAN who denies planning to commit acts of terrorism against LGBT people in Barrow declared he was bisexual in a shock twist during his trial.

In day two of the second week of his trial at Leeds Crown Court Ethan Stables from Egerton Court in Barrow has been giving evidence and cross-examined.

Stables is accused of planning to massacre LGBT people at a gay pride event at the New Empire pub in Barrow on June 23 of last year.

Giving evidence, Stables denied he was homophobic, and insisted he only made threats to kill LGBT people using a machete "to fit in with friends and to look big".

The 20-year-old said he had "fallen in with a bad crowd" of far right extremists on Facebook and only pretended to be anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic views because he believed they would bully him.

“I am disgusted and ashamed at myself for what I said. I just wish I could turn the clock back. I’m sorry,” he said.

During cross examination prosecution barrister Jonathan Sandiford says: “You could have blocked these right wing people. Are you saying it was easier to pretend to be a Nazi and homophobic than blocking them?”

Stables replied: “Yes.”

In 2014 Stables saw a child psychologist.

Stables told the doctor that if his then relationship with a girl in Denmark didn’t work he “would come back to Britain and go on a rampage killing everyone”. Stables said he would start this rampage at his old school - Furness Academy.

The court has heard he was expelled from the academy after getting another pupil into a headlock and holding a hacksaw against his throat.

While visiting his then 16-year-old girlfriend in Germany Stables researched “where to buy a machine gun” and “how to avoid airport police”.

He told the court the second search term was because he’d heard Barrow police had issued an arrest warrant for shoplifting and he thought they’d come to the airport on his return to arrest him.

In a shock twist, Stables revealed he was bisexual, something he only revealed after his trial started. He said he had been bisexual since he was 14.

He told the jury he was scared to reveal he was bisexual earlier because his grandparents “would be disgusted”.

"I have had experiences with members of the same sex," he added.

"I had worried it would be brought up in court and by the press."

Prosecution barrister Mr Sandiford told Stables: "I put it to you that this is something you have made up in order to try and advance yourself a defence."

A few days after his first arrest on the night of June 23, Stables went to Barrow Police Station with what he described as the intention to "tell the truth".

During interview he told officers he admired Adolf Hitler and that homosexuals "were imposing their views on our children".

He was asked why he had repeated these views to police if, as he claimed, he had only done so on Facebook because he was worried his far right friends would dislike and bully him.

"I was in a bad place at the police station, I was in a bad mood and I'd been dragged out of my home," he said.

During his trial, Stables has claimed to have only basic knowledge about the Nazis, yet at times during cross examination he has launched into a well-versed and accurate portrayal of the Aryan principles behind the movement.

"A lot of what I said was what I had been told by those people on Facebook," he said when challenged.

"I was just going along with them. I was brainwashed."

The trial continues