Britain’s youngest terrorist who led neo-Nazi cell from grandmother’s Cornwall home is spared jail
Britain’s youngest terrorist who led neo-Nazi cell from his grandmother’s cottage in Cornwall after committing first offence age 13 is spared jail
- Britain’s youngest convicted terrorist led a neo-Nazi cell from his gran’s house
- The boy was aged just 13 when he got his hands on instructions for explosives
- At 14 he amassed stash of terror material and shared far-right extremist ideology
- Pleaded guilty to 12 offences and given a 24-month youth rehabilitation order
Britain’s youngest convicted terrorist, who led a neo-Nazi cell from his grandmother’s house, has been sentenced at the Old Bailey to a 24-month youth rehabilitation order.
The teenager, who was 13 at the time of the first offence, and 15 at the time of the last one, lives with his grandmother in cottage in rural Cornwall.
He became involved with Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), which was led by an individual based in Estonia, known as ‘Commander’, and had around 30 members from European countries, USA and Canada.
The British cell, FKD_GB, was formed in June 2019, one month before the teenager’s arrest, and had five members.
Material seized by police from one of the boy’s recruits after they smashed the far-right ring
This offensive material was collected by police from a member of the Feuerkrieg Division
These items were recovered during the investigation into cell member Luke Hunter
Police moved in to search his home address on July 23, 2019 and found a Nazi flag, a hard copy of Iron Gates – a key text for neo-Nazis – and the number ‘1488’ painted onto the garden shed, a Nazi slogan.
The numbers are code for the 14 words: ‘We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children’ and ‘Heil Hitler.’
The teenager had been had been interested in the far-right since early 2018 and joined a forum called Fascist Forge in October 2018, a far-right group which encouraged the creation of small terrorist cells and shared guides on military combat and how to make explosives.
Between October 2018 and July 2019, the teenager collected ‘a significant volume’ of far- right materials and manuals.
He was active on far-right platforms, and was even banned from one for his extreme views.
On various far-right chat forums, and in one-to-one chats, he expressed racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views.
The teenager got in touch with the ‘Commander’ of FKD in May 2019 – who was also aged 13 – and by June 11, he had been appointed the ‘UK cell leader’.
Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, said the teenager was ‘under no illusion as to the nature and purpose of FKD.’ and pledged his allegiance unless ‘FKD got proscribed as a terrorist organisation or SHTF’ – a reference to s**t hits the fan, said to refer to a race war.
As ‘cell leader’, the boy was responsible for recruitment for FKD_GB, using far-right platforms, such as Discord and Fascist Forge to bolster his membership, and vetting applicants who wanted to join.
As recruiter, he would send prospective members a list of questions and then judge their answers with a view to trying to keep out any security risks ‘so that nothing can be traced back to me’.
Among his recruits was Paul Dunleavy, 16, a grammar school pupil from Rugby, with whom the teenager discussed the acquisition of firearms and who was jailed for five and a half years for preparing acts of terrorism last November.
Another, Luke Hunter, 23, used the name Death Cult Posting to pump out propaganda for FKD and was jailed for four years and two months in December.
In keeping with the FKD drive for action rather than words, he initiated discussion in the FKD chat on July 19 about killing drugs dealers, ‘to get a few kills to FKD’s name’ and as a possible way of attracting more ‘serious’ members.
The teenager encouraged members to be ‘active’ and on July 23, he warned that ‘failure of activity will result in expulsion.’
Having established the group, he set up a chat group on an application called Wire on July 10, explaining to a new recruit that FKD is ‘everyone’ and is for ‘general discussion’, whereas FKD_GB is ‘where we plan stuff’.
The teenager had a collection of weapons manuals and, on April 29, he downloaded instructions on how to build a shotgun out of piping.
His internet history from May to July 2019 showed multiple searches about guns and visits to websites selling guns.
On July 7, he asked Commander about the best place to buy an AK47 and then downloaded a document called ‘UndergroundAK47Buildmanual’ and visited a website selling parts for AK47s.
On July 19, the teenager emailed ‘guns of egypt’ and asked: ‘What stock do currently have and is it safe to buy from you?’.
On July 23, Commander and the boy posted about the need for action by FKD members with Commander expressing his disappointment that only two people in the group ‘do something’.
The teenager, using the name ‘Marand’ said: ‘Recruitment has been closed for at least a month. I want the current members to be active and for us to organize. I also want to hold a vc [voice call] with most or all of the members’
Commander advised him: ‘Get off grid, get together and organize. Stop sitting behind a computer screen. Get out there and organise. Your race needs you.’
On October 14 2019, following examination of the devices seized, police arrested the teenager for terrorism offences.
In police interview, he denied having had any racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic views, and said his comments and posts were ‘to look cool’ and to look like [he] was doing something for ‘the cause’.
He said he had been thinking for about a month that he wanted to leave FKD and Wire and planned to do so on his birthday at the end of July.
Ms Parsons told the court: ‘The Crown does not accept [the boy’s] assertion to police in interview, and later to the psychiatrist and psychologist, that he was planning on leaving FKD.’
Now aged 16, he pleaded guilty to two counts of distribution of terrorist material and 10 counts of possession of material likely to be of use to terrorism.
Paul Dunleavy was recruited into the group by the teenager and poses here in a sick heil pose
Deni Matthews, defending, described the teenager as a ‘damaged young man who sought approval by expressing views he certainly does not ascribe to now and was unlikely to have ascribed to genuinely at the time.’
On various far-right chat forums, and in one-to-one chats, the teenager expressed racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views.
On March 17 2019, he said he wanted to make a nail bomb and kill any ‘nigs and gays’ and on July 4, he talked of ‘shooting up’ a gay pride parade or driving through the parade in a truck full of explosives.
He wanted to gas all Jews, ‘shoot up’ homosexuals and ‘hang race mixing whores and shoot the men’.
On July 13, he told followers he wanted to put a brick through the window of ‘the local n***er’.
The teenager had a copy of Brenton Tarrant’s manifesto, The Great Replacement, saved to this computer in a folder titled ‘Christchurch shootings’.
Also in the folder were two copies of the Facebook Live stream of the shooting, one of which had mocking sound effects. He also had a copy of the live streaming on his mobile phone.
In a discussion about the shootings in the FKD Wire chats, the boy expressed admiration for Tarrant, saying ‘it doesn’t matter what he thought in terms of the nitty gritty he actually had the guts to do something’ – at the same time, applauding his ‘high score’, a reference to the number of Tarrant’s victims.
The boy also had a copy of the manifesto of John Earnest, who killed an individual in a synagogue during the Jewish Passover holiday in San Diego in April 2019.
The shooting was the subject of discussion in the FKD chat on July 12 when one member, Ben, told the group that someone in his area was ‘going to move on a Synagogue’ and take ‘direct action after recon is conducted and people are put in position’. FKD members responded with approval.
Also on his computer was an image of ashes with the text ‘Do it again Uncle Adolf’.
Among the documents he had one titled ‘NBK2000.pdf’, standing for Natural Born Killers, which stated: ‘Every resistance group uses assassination (murder) and torture (rape) as weapons against the agents of the State.’
One section titled ‘Random terror & killing’ read: ‘Here is where all the ideas about how to kill random people and cause mass terror are located.’
The teenager’s collection of bomb-making instructions included: The Big Book of Mischief, the Terrorist Handbook, General Thermite Formula, C1 Plastic explosive step by step, Napalm recipe, and Homemade molotov cocktail.
Ms Parsons said aggravating factors, included the significant volume of terrorist publications and the fact the offending was committed over a period of a year
‘There was a specifically targeted audience, namely the far-right extremists on the FKD Wire Chat and communication with known extremists.
‘There was deliberate use of encrypted communications or similar technologies to facilitate the commission of the offence and impede detection.