Rapid increase in terror suspects looking at extreme violence online
The senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism policing says children as young as 10 are involved in some cases
Last updated 15 hours ago
Counter-terrorism police are seeing a rapid increase in the number of suspects fascinated with extreme violence, whose search histories are like "a pick and mix of horror", a senior officer has said.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, who is senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said the youngest people in their caseload are children of 10 or 11.
She told journalists: "Becoming far more common and more prevalent is this rapidly increasing fascination with extreme violence and extreme content that we're seeing throughout our case work.
"The type of material that we're encountering, and my officers and staff are encountering in casework, is absolutely staggering and horrific.
"So we are seeing search histories which contain violence, misogyny, gore, extreme pornography, racism, fascination with mass violence, school massacres, incel, and sometimes that's coupled with terrorist material.
"Sometimes it's not, but what it absolutely is is a pick and mix of horror, horrific content."
She added: "These sort of grotesque fascinations with violence and harmful views that we're seeing are increasingly common."
Investigators see a lot of young people accessing extreme material, which is "hugely worrying", she said.
"We most definitely need to think differently about how we stop that conveyor belt of young people who are seeing and being exposed to this type of material, and unfortunately, sometimes then going on to commit horrific acts."
Police and security services have stopped 43 late-stage terror plots since 2017, three in the last 12 months.
Some were "goal line saves", Ms Evans said.
The most recent three attacks were two Islamist plots and one extreme right-wing, that were aimed at causing mass casualties.
At a briefing for journalists at Scotland Yard, Ms Evans described the terror threat as "smouldering".
She said: "I use the word smouldering really, because we have some really deep, dark hot spots, some pockets where we cannot leave the activity and the groups unattended, and we need to continue to maintain our focus on them to keep the threat at bay."