A 17-year-old boy who wanted to “shoot up a mosque” and kill over 10,000 people has been given a rehabilitation order.
The teenager who cannot be identified, from Wiltshire, was given the 24-month order at Southampton Youth Court and was also ordered to pay a £22 court surcharge.
He had pleaded guilty to possessing material likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
A spokesman for Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) said “concerned” members of the public had reported the boy after he had made “numerous racist comments” in online forums.
“[He] had talked about wanting to kill Muslims by ‘shooting up a mosque’,” they added.
The teenager was arrested on June 18 and during a property search detectives uncovered a handwritten note called “The Big Plan.”
“This contained details of how to make a bomb, a number of named locations and individuals who were believed to be aspirational targets, and an intention to kill in excess of 10,000 people,” the spokesman added.
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A Community Rehabilitation Order is a court order which is made to help avoid further offending. It can last up to 3 years.
This order is supervised by a Youth Offending Service worker who is there to advise, assist and encourage an offender, and to help to prevent him/her re-offending.
Under a Community Rehabilitation Order an offender has to:
- Keep appointments with the Youth Offending Service, which will be once a week for the first 3 months.
- Work with them to look at why they offend and ways in which they can change their behaviour.
- Act responsibly whilst on supervision in their community and when attending for appointments.
Detective Ch Supt Kath Barnes, head of CTPSE, said: “I know this case may be concerning to certain members of the community who were the target of the atrocious hatred. We have seen an increase in the proportion of our investigations from the threat from extreme right-wing terrorism who wish to cause harm in our communities.
“We take that threat very seriously and this is why the whole of the counter terrorism community, as well as the whole of society, has a role to play in tackling it.”
Wiltshire Police’s Asst Ch Const, Deb Smith, 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.”
