A far-right terrorist who wanted to indiscriminately murder Muslims at a mosque and kill “10,000 people” avoided a prison sentence, receiving a 24-month youth rehabilitation order instead.
The 17-year-old from Wiltshire, who maintains legal anonymity due to their age, was given the sentence at Southampton Youth Court.
The sentence mirrors that given to a neo-Nazi terrorist, who came to the attention of authorities aged just thirteen before receiving their rehabilitation order in February 2021.
He pleaded guilty to possessing material likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
The investigation began when the public contacted the authorities following a slew of racist comments on online message boards – including a desire to murder Muslims with a gun at a mosque, a chilling reminder of the lingering influence of the white supremacist terrorist who murdered 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019.
On June 18, 2021, an arrest resulted in police finding a handwritten note at their home address called “The Big Plan”.
A spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) revealed that in contained information and “details of how to make a bomb,” identifiable locations and individuals they believed to be “aspirational targets” amidst an intention to kill over 10,000 people.
Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, who leads the CTPSE, thanked those who reported the individual to the anti-terrorism hotline. In a statement, she said: “Having read the vile racist abuse online, they chose to ACT; they contacted the Anti-Terrorism Hotline and shared their concerns with us, and as a result, we were able to intervene before the situation escalated any further.”
CTPSE have also documented “an increase in the proportion of our investigations from the threat from extreme right-wing terrorism.”
Deb Smith, Wiltshire Police’s Assistant Chief Constable, said: “I hope that our communities feel reassured that we acted swiftly, in conjunction with our partners, to ensure that this individual was detained and could no longer pose a risk to the wider public.”
Tell MAMA will be raising our concerns about the lenient nature of the sentencing with the relevant authorities.