Boy, 14, ‘plotted terror attack in his bedroom’
Islamic convert ‘built bombs in Hampshire home’
A BOY of 14 filmed a video recording his wish to become an Islamist ‘martyr’ while making bombs in his bedroom, a court heard yesterday.
The teenager is accused of planning a terror attack using explosives made of cleaning fluid, and stockpiling tinfoil and screws to create shrapnel.
He converted to Islam earlier this year but allegedly developed an ‘extremist jihadi mindset’ over the past few weeks, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.
The schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is thought to be the secondyoungest person to be charged with terrorism offences in the country.
Police arrested him on Friday last week and searched his home in Eastleigh, Hampshire, on Monday. Officers allegedly found a
‘Ideas about martyrdom’
stockpile of explosive materials, as well as a knife, in his ‘charred’ wardrobe, on which he had fitted a crude alarm system.
The boy had researched bomb-making on the internet and had even made his own instructional videos, prosecutor Louise Gray alleged.
Referring to the devices found in his room, she said: ‘If you held it without screws you might cause some damage to yourself – maybe a burn-type damage – but with screws in it you’ve created shrapnel. In a test it’s very unpredictable. He’s tried to perfect it.
‘He’s developed an extremist jihadi mindset, he’s expressed ideas about martyrdom and he’s talked about his own martyrdom as well. These videos where he’s describing himself, he’s clearly giving advice to someone but I don’t think they’ve gone anywhere.’
The boy was charged on Wednesday with one count of preparation of terrorist acts connected to Islamist terrorism on or before June 12.
Social services became concerned after receiving a call from his mother stating he had converted to Islam this year and began expressing extremist views in the last month, prosecutors said.
Miss Gray said the allegations were so serious the case needed to be heard at a Crown court.
Wearing a prison-issue grey tracksuit and a medical face mask, the boy spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and to enter a not guilty plea.
His mother wept as she sat in front of her son in the body of the court. She did not address the judge directly but sobbed toward the end of the hearing.
The boy is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Monday for a virtual hearing, and has been remanded in youth detention.
The youngest Briton to be charged with terror offences was jailed in 2015 over a plot to behead police officers at 14. The boy, from Blackburn, was given lifelong anonymity.