Dylan Earl, 21, a builder and part-time drug dealer, has been cast by his defence as a cannabis-smoking gamer who was involved in “desperate, pathetic and delusional” message exchanges with a Russian chatbot controlled by the Wagner Group.

The ringleader behind an arson attack and plot to kidnap a billionaire Russian dissident had been “groomed” by a chatbot, operated by Wagner mercenaries, a court was told.
The Old Bailey heard the f…