Teesside boy's extreme right-wing activity 'abhorrent in the extreme'
He appeared at Leeds Youth Court earlier
A boy from Teesside is set to be sentenced by a crown court over extreme right-wing terrorism offences.
The 15 year-old, who cannot be named, was due to be dealt with at Leeds Youth Court earlier by senior district judge Paul Goldspring, but he decided he did not have a wide enough range of powers to deal with him.
The court heard the teenager filled notebooks with "abhorrent in the extreme" racist thoughts, had online chats with white supremacist groups and filmed himself throwing a petrol bomb.
Judge Goldspring heard how teachers at the boy's school became so concerned after he scrawled on his mock GCSE physics paper, that they eventually called counter-terror police.
When officers arrived at his home in December 2023, his mother told them: "It's about my son, isn't it?" and she already had a range of items ready for them to inspect on the dining table of their house in Stockton-on-Tees.
Prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe told the judge about drawings found in the house, relating to a range of far-right ideologies, including one featuring a gas mask, accompanied by "6MWE".
Ms Metcalfe said this is a reference to the holocaust and means "six million not enough".
There were also references to the proscribed organisation, the Atomwaffen Division and a Star of David surrounded by the words "lies".
The prosecutor said one red notebook was full of material that showed an "extreme far-right-wing ideology".
Ms Metcalfe said the police also discovered 78 chats the boy had engaged with on the Telegram platform, which included the sharing of videos of well-known terror atrocities around the world.
In one, the defendant had added a soundtrack to Brenton Tarrant's live stream video of his murders in the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, in New Zealand.
In another, he says: "I've been trying to steal Korans from my school to burn".
The court heard how the police found a video of the teenager wearing a skull mask and throwing a petrol bomb to the floor.
Ms Metcalfe said an analysis of the boy's devices uncovered documents including The Terrorist's Handbook and The Improvised Munitions Handbook, which included instructions for making weapons and explosives.
The boy's solicitor Julian Gaskin said his client had now been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
He said the defendant was extremely isolated at school and said he latched on to a community at a time of extreme vulnerability.
Mr Gaskin said: "He has found something that is wholly inappropriate, but found some sense of belonging, how unpalatable as that is."
The solicitor added: "He doesn't hold the views, or espouse them now," and explained how he comes from a "loving family".
The boy burst into tears as he explained to Mr Goldspring some of the problems he has had at school.
The judge said he understood these problems but was struggling to see the link to extreme-right wing ideology.
Asked if he wanted to explain this, the boy shook his head, visibly too upset to speak.
Mr Goldspring said he had dealt with a lot of young people who are essentially "keyboard warriors" but he said the defendant's actions "go far further than that, including videoing himself throwing a Molotov cocktail".
He said: "What you said and did was abhorrent in the extreme."
Mr Goldspring explained that a crown judge needed to deal with the case due to their wider range of sentencing powers.
The judge told the defendant that, although these included greater powers in relation to how long he could be placed in custody, that was not the inevitable outcome of the case. He said the crown court also had greater powers in relation to non-custodial sentences.
The boy has admitted five counts of collecting information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, three counts of disseminating terrorist publications, one offence of criminal damage and one of racially aggravated criminal damage.
He was given conditional bail and will appear at Leeds Crown Court at a date to be fixed.