A RED-haired extremist from Southampton who wrote about assassinating the Prince of Wales to make Prince Harry king ''for the Aryan people'' has told jurors that being a hitman was his ''number one fantasy''.

Mark Colborne, 37, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of preparing terrorist acts for months before his arrest on June 3 last year.

The court heard that he felt marginalised for being a white, ginger-haired man around the time he bought the ingredients for deadly poison cyanide and made notes about shooting Prince Charles with a sniper rifle.

But while he admitted buying the chemicals and writing the diary recovered from his home in Southampton, he dismissed entries as ''angry rants'' made when he was off medication for depression.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC, he said: ''Fantasies about killing people as a hitman - that was my number one fantasy.

''Terrorism fantasies were sort of subsidiary but my main interest in being a professional hitman had taken over.''

The court heard he kept thoughts from mental health workers and even his mother with whom he was close.

Ms Darlow asked: ''Would you say you were someone quite good at acting out a role, playing a harmless bumbling fool?''

He replied: ''I would not say I would put on an act ... I was good at hiding the fact I was unwell.''

The prosecutor read out diary extracts in which Colborne wrote he should be ''in the running for an Oscar'' for his acting ability, and describing himself as a ''Jekyll and Hyde'' character.

Asked to explain them, the defendant said: ''I'm trying to make out I'm someone more clever than I actually am.''

Ms Darlow asserted: ''You play your care worker, you play your mental health professionals, you play your mum.

''You make out you are Mr Harmless, Mr Nice Guy, and go back to your bedroom and order poison over the internet.''

Colborne said he hid his extremism ''very well'' but added: ''I have felt like a Jekyll and Hyde in the sense of hiding my problem from people, but that's all.''

In other entries, Colborne wrote about ''doing a Stephen Lawrence'' in reference to the racially motivated murder.

The defendant said: ''That's just rage.

''I wouldn't actually go out and do that.''

Asked about his views on race, Colborne said he had ''misguided thoughts'' on the subject.

When asked to explain what he meant by ''mud race'', he said: ''People of the opposite race to me - black, Asian people.''

And Caucasian, he said, referred to white people who were not blonde, blue-eyed ''Aryans''.

Colborne denies the charge against him and the trial continues.