Fury as judge rules youngest terrorist can never be named
A JUDGE’S decision to grant lifelong anonymity to Britain’s youngest terrorist sparked uproar yesterday.
The jihadi, from Blackburn, was just 14 when he plotted to murder police officers in Australia during an Anzac Day parade.
The schoolboy was also researching targets in Britain and learning to make bombs, after being recruited by IS online. He was given a life sentence in 2015 and ordered to serve a minimum of five years, making him eligible for release next year.
A ban on identifying him expired on his 18th birthday, but the High Court has now backed a bid by his lawyers that he should never be named.
Dame Victoria Sharp accepted fears the teenager could become a ‘poster boy’ for Islamic extremists, may be at risk of ‘re-radicalisation’ and that he and his relatives could face reprisals.
But the brother of an IS victim slammed that ruling last night. ‘ It’s disgusting,’ said Reg Henning, whose aid worker brother Alan was murdered by IS after joining a convoy to Syria.
‘Terrorists get more protection than the families of their victims do. This is a ridiculous decision, he should be named and shamed. He’s made his bed, he should lie in it.’
The teenager joins a handful of people who have been given such lifetime anonymity orders – among them Mary Bell, who killed as a child, and Maxine Carr, who lied to police investigating the Soham murders. At the age of just 14, the Blackburn terrorist sent encrypted messages instructing an Australian jihadi to launch attacks during a 2015 Anzac Day parade.
Over nine days he sent thousands of messages to 18-year-old Sevdet Besim, instructing him to behead police officers or run them over with a car at the annual remembrance ceremony in Melbourne.
Australian police were alerted to the plot after British officers discovered material on the teenager’s mobile phone. He was also researching UK terror targets and teaching himself how to make bombs.
On his hit-list were a police station, a town hall and BAE Systems, the global defence and aerospace company. A combat knife and an Islamist flag were recovered from his home, along with a phone holding a martyrdom message. It emerged he had been groomed online by experienced Islamic State recruiters soon after being given his first smartphone. His lawyers argued at a hearing last November that there was a ‘significant risk of attacks or retaliation against him’ if his identity was made public.
They also said that the teenager – who is autistic and can only be referred to as RXG – would be at risk of ‘re-radicalisation’ by extremists and that his relatives would be likely to face reprisals were he named. A number of media organisations made representations to the court, arguing that he should be named. But Dame Victoria Sharp rejected their opposition, saying that identifying him was likely to cause him ‘serious harm’.
Sitting with Mr Justice Nicklin, she said the case was ‘an exceptional one’ but that experts had concluded that identifying him would ‘fundamentally undermine’ his rehabilitation.
She added: ‘The position is exacerbated by his autism, which manifests itself in his obsessive behaviour. This, combined with his need for recognition and status, makes him very vulnerable to exploitation and potential re-radicalisation.’
Only a handful of lifelong anonymity orders have been made, including those granted on the new identities given to Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger.
Maxine Carr was jailed in 2003 for providing a false alibi for Ian Huntley, her then boyfriend, after he murdered the Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
She was given a new identity and lifelong anonymity on her release after receiving multiple death threats online.
Two brothers aged 10 and 11 who tortured, beat and stabbed two boys in a rural area of Edlington, South Yorkshire in 2009 were given lifelong anonymity after serving six years behind bars. A judge ruled that both were ‘committed to the path of rehabilitation’.
‘Should be named and shamed’