Star student ‘ fell into terrorism’
An A- star grammar school student became a Satanist neo- Nazi after disappearing down "the rabbit hole of the internet", a court has heard.
Harry Vaughan, 18, faces sentencing at the Old Bailey next week after pleading guilty last month to 14 terrorism offences and two counts of possessing child sex abuse images.
Prosecutor Dan PawsonPounds s ai d t he t e e nager was "considered a f ocused and able" student at his top boys’ school in London - who achieved A- star grades in four A- levels in the summer.
But he was arrested at his family home on 19 June last year in a counter- terrorism i nvest i g a t i on i nt o Fasci s t Forge, an online forum used by extreme right- wing militants.
Vaughan described himself in his profile as an "extremist" and shared "sophisticated" far- right propaganda posters he had made on his laptop, the court heard.
I n a March 2018 application to join the System Resistance Net work - an alias of the banned neo- Nazi group National Action - he wrote: “I could handle myself in a fight. There is nothing I wouldn't do to further the cause.”
Police f ound 4,200 i mages and 302 files, including an extreme right- wing terrorist book and documents relating to Satanism, neo- Nazism and anti- Semitism, on Vaughan's computer and other devices.
Fi l e s i n c l u d e d g r a p h i c s encouraging acts of terrorism in the name of the proscribed terrorist organisation Sonnenkrieg Division, a guide to killing people, and bomb- making manuals. Mr Pawson- Pounds said Vaughan had also looked on Google maps for the locations of schools near his home and searched for explosives and plastic pipes.
He said: "The material demonstrated unequivocally that
Vaughan had an entrenched extreme right- wing and racist mindset, as well as an interest in explosives, firearms and vi ol e nce more generall y.” Vaughan pleaded guilt y to one count of encouragement of terrorism, one count of disseminating a terrorist publication, 12 counts of possessing a document containing information of a kind likely to be of use to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism, and two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child, at Westminster Youth
Court on 2 September.
He appeared i n t he dock at the Old Bailey on Friday. His parents, Jake and Rachel Vaughan, sat in front in the well of the court.
Vaughan's barrister, Naeem Mian QC, said t he material described in court was a "mere glimpse" of the teenager's "extensive library of hate".
Mr Mian said Vaughan’s "loving, committed parents" had been left with a "sense of bewilderment" after his arrest.
"He is somebody who has disappeared down a rabbit hole, a rabbit hole of the internet, and he is in a very, very dark place, or certainly was," said Mr Mian. "He suggests or intimates he was groomed ... The more appropriate word would be ' exposed to' over a protracted period of time, and that's undoubtedly resulted in where is now."
A d j o u r n i n g s e n t e n c i n g until next Friday, the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, released Vaughan on conditional bail, but warned he could face jail.