Police found plan to commit arson at synagogues in bedroom of boy, 17, who has autism

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

A teenager with neo-Nazi views who planned a terror attack in Durham has been sentenced to six years and eight months in custody.

The 17-year-old identified potential targets including schools, pubs and post offices, in a “guerrilla warfare” manual.

Police seized documents – including one that contained details of a plan to carry out an arson campaign against synagogues – and a collection of far-right literature from his bedroom in March last year.

He was also found to have researched firearms, explosives and knives by officers who analysed his computer and mobile phone devices.

The then 16-year-old was the youngest person to be convicted of planning a terrorist attack in the UK during a trial in which he described himself as a “natural sadist”.

During his sentencing at Manchester crown court on Tuesday, the court heard of his “admiration” for Adolf Hitler and fixation on the Columbine high school massacre, in which two teenagers killed 13 people in the US in 1999.

Judge David Stockdale described the defendant as a “highly intelligent” boy who had “contempt for Jewish people, black people, gay people and disabled people”.

He added that his “twisted and many would say sick ideological path” was a “matter of obvious regret”.

Alongside the custodial sentence for preparing terrorist acts between October 2017 and March 2019, the teenager will also serve five years on licence after his release.

Following a six-week trial the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty in November.

He was also convicted of disseminating a terrorist publication, possessing an article for a purpose connected to terrorism, and three counts of possessing documents useful to someone preparing acts of terrorism.

Defending, Nigel Edwards QC argued that the teenager’s offending should be viewed in the context of his autism, citing a psychiatric assessment in which a doctor had taken the view that his “cognitive age was significantly affected by his disability”.

The defendant said he had no intention of carrying out any attacks and claimed he had adopted a fake rightwing persona for “shock value”.

Edwards told the court the teenager’s parents “didn’t believe there was anything wrong” and had not engaged in adequate intervention, including therapeutic treatment, for his condition for fear of “labelling” him.

He added that the boy’s hostility towards certain groups of people was influenced “by how he perceived the world around him” and that he had been allowed to spend long periods in his darkened bedroom with his laptop.

Stockdale said he took both the fact the boy had an autistic spectrum disorder, and a letter he had written expressing his remorse, into account during sentencing.

The boy’s young age was also a mitigating factor, according to Stockdale, who said it was a “most disturbing” aspect of the case.

He added he believed the boy had sought both acceptance and to make himself “important, controversial and shocking” by posting his views in an online neo-Nazi forum.

• This article was amended on 8 January 2020. An earlier version mistakenly said the defendant’s sentence was for crimes committed “between October 2019 and March 2019”. This has been corrected.