Bootle teenager avoids jail after threatening to bomb a synagogue
The 16 year old had downloaded bomb-making manuals
A teenager from Bootle who threatened to bomb a synagogue has avoided jail
The 16 year old, who has autism and who can't be named for legal reasons, was arrested at his home on May 28 last year.
Authorities in the US had been alerted to a post on Twitter which said: "I am a domestic terror threat. I will bomb a synagogue."
A sentencing hearing at Liverpool Youth Court today {Wednesday 27th April) was told the youth, who was given a referral order, also searched Google for "nearest synagogue to me".
Prosecutor Diana Wilson said when the boy, then 15, was arrested he told his mother: "It was a joke."
She said images showed the youth wearing a mask with swastikas on, making a white power symbol and doing a Nazi salute.
The court heard there were downloads found on his devices for weapons handbooks.
Ms Wilson said: "In essence, all of these documents are lengthy, difficult to obtain, detailed descriptions of how to make bombs."
She also described numerous posts which were antisemitic, racist, transphobic, homophobic and reflected an incel ideology.
Sentencing, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said:
"Virtually every minority group that exists you had something derogatory to say about.
"I have been doing this job as a judge for 12 years and I have been involved in the criminal justice system for 23 years and this is some of the most appalling behaviour by a young person I have seen in terms of the comments you made, the views you expressed.
"They are, and should rightly be, abhorred by everyone."
Gerard Pitt, defending, said the defendant was introduced to a far-right community online after he began playing video game Fortnite, where he could speak to fellow gamers in virtual "hangouts".
He said: "He found it much easier to form relationships with people in these Fortnite hangouts and subsequently on Twitter than he did in real life, because of his autism."
He said the boy also followed some online personalities who were "professional trolls" and would have conversations involving "appalling abuse" on secretive online forums.
He said: "They were trying to outdo one another, to be the most offensive they could be."
The youth began "making his own content" in 2020 and would screenshot messages, documents and Google searches, Mr Pitt said.
But, he said there was no evidence the boy had actually tried to build a bomb or search for the ingredients to do so.
The court heard the youth pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing a document containing information useful to terrorism, two counts of racial hatred - distributing a visual/sound recording, three counts of publishing material to stir up racial hatred and one count of sending by a public communication network an offensive/indecent/obscene/menacing message.
Mr Pitt told the court the boy, who had possessed a "very large library" of far-right material, said he no longer held the same views after time away from the online community.
Mr Goldspring told the youth: "It is the scale, scope and nature of your hatred for fellow men and women. In fact my heart sank when I read the case papers for the first time."
But he said he believed imposing a custodial term would be inappropriate and could undo rehabilitative steps which had been made.
He said: "I'm of the view, albeit I struggled greatly with making the decision, that a non-custodial sentence would be in the public interest."
He ordered a 12-month intensive referral order.