A York woman who plotted to destroy 5G masts because she believed they were linked to the Covid-19 vaccines will be free "almost immediately".

Conspiracy theorist Christine Grayson, 59, discussed "getting rod" of the mobile phone masts with expanding foam and angle grinders, after “becoming obsessed” with the belief that they were linked to the Covid-19 vaccine, Leeds Crown Court heard.

On Friday, at the end of a five-week terrorism trial, the charity fundraiser was found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and acquitted of encouraging terrorism.

Her co-defendant Darren Reynolds, 60, was convicted of eight terrorist offences, but acquitted of the criminal damage charge.

The court heard they knew each other through the social media platform Telegram, of which both were regular users between 2020 and 2022.

Grayson was jailed for 12 months. Because she has been in custody on remand awaiting trial for nine months, she will be released "almost immediately," Leeds Crown Court heard.

The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl KC said she was a “person of good character” and a regular charity fundraiser, who had started to post online about the dangers of 5G from 2021-22.

Although Grayson “did not get beyond the planning stage”, she had chosen to take the law into her own hands, discussing methods of removing them, saying she needed a “sabotage team”, and posting videos of burning masts.

Grayson, of Boothwood Road, Rawcliffe, had denied all charges against her, as had Reynolds, of Newbould Crescent, Sheffield.

He was jailed for 12 years with an extra year on licence after he completes the 12 years.

Leeds Crown Court heard the terrorist offences he was convicted of were linked to his “extreme right wing, antisemitic and racist views”.

The jury were told how Reynolds, 60, discussed armed uprisings and advocated violence towards people he called “traitors,”.

His comments included describing Parliament as “a nest of Jews, foreigners and collaborators” and repeatedly calling for MPs to be hanged.

In September 2021 he wrote: “We need to destroy the Jews once and for all… TOTAL ANNIHILATION, NO TRIALS, NO PRISONERS.”

The judge said Reynolds “applauded the callous murders” of MPs Jo Cox and Sir David Amess,

Lee Karu, mitigating on behalf of Reynolds, said this was a case of “free speech gone completely wrong and a line crossed”.

But the judge said Reynolds “was well beyond that line,” telling him: “This was not free speech. This was a persistent message of hatred and a deliberate call to arms.”

Jurors found Reynolds guilty of encouraging terrorism with his online comments, and disseminating a terrorist publication by sharing a link to the neo-Nazi “White Alexandria’s Library”.

He was also convicted of six offences of possessing material likely to be useful to a person committing an act of terrorism, including a manual on how to build a .50 Browning calibre single shot rifle, and a document called How to Become an Assassin.