‘Radicalised in a week’... terror charge farmer’s son
25-hour call to holy war ‘broadcast by mistake’
THE teenage son of a farmer appeared in court yesterday accused of plotting a London Bridge-style suicide attack on a major British city.
The 17-year-old is charged with obtaining a knife and a hammer as he prepared to hijack a vehicle for a ‘lone wolf’ attack on Cardiff.
Counter-terrorism police suspect the boy – who cannot be identified because of his age and is preparing for A-levels – was radicalised in less than a week online.
The strike was feared to take place on June 30 as more than 40,000 fans descended on the Principality Stadium for a Justin Bieber concert.
The teenager was arrested during a raid on his home hours before the Canadian pop star took the stage.
The suspected terrorist is from a middle-class white British Christian family and had shown little evidence of interest in militant Islam.
Online social media profiles show the rugby-mad boy enjoying nature watching, sending photographs of birds on his family property to BBC’s Springwatch and fishing.
The prosecution is the latest chilling evidence of how the security services are scrambling to prevent further terrorist atrocities.
Police are making unprecedented numbers of arrests as they battle to thwart another attack on the scale of those at Westminster, Manchester or London Bridge.
Senior officers fear that lone wolves, often inspired by Islamic State propaganda and preparing unsophisticated attacks, pose the greatest threat. They do not need to buy chemicals or weapons, or share their intentions with members of a network, so are difficult to detect.
In some cases vulnerable young men are effectively groomed by online extremists who threaten and cajole them via secretive chat rooms and messaging apps.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday the boy appeared to fight back tears as he was remanded in custody. He spoke only to confirm his name and address.
He faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2006. The maximum penalty for an adult defendant would be life in prison on conviction.
The first accuses him of illicitly preparing to commit acts of terrorism between May 29 and July 1. In particular, prosecutors accuse the teenager of conducting online A MUSLIM radio station broadcast lectures by an Al Qaeda terror leader calling for holy war ‘by mistake’.
Iman FM transmitted 25 hours of sermons from Anwar AlAwlaki, a hate preacher killed by a US drone strike in 2011. A complaint was made to Ofcom, which has suspended the Sheffield-based station’s licence.
The watchdog said the material ‘amounted to a direct call to action to members of the Muslim community to prepare for and carry out violent action against non-Muslim people’.
Bosses at Iman FM have 21 days to explain themselves or be closed down. They found the extremist lectures on YouTube and broadcast them during Ramadan, on June 14.
Ofcom said Al-Awlaki, who was an American Muslim cleric of Yemeni descent, was an Al Qaeda leader, recruiter and trainer.
But Iman FM claimed to be unaware of the preacher’s background and said not all the material was checked before being aired.
The Ofcom ruling described this defence as ‘not credible’.
Mohammad Mughal, the station’s chief executive, said: ‘This is very, very sad because none of us had any idea this lecture was preaching hatred.’ research ‘in relation to attack planning’.
He is also accused of obtaining weapons, a 6in sheath knife and hammer allegedly found in a rucksack, and preparing a suicide note.
The second charge alleges that the boy published an image and comment on an open Instagram page in the name ‘alqaeds’, apparently referring to Al Qaeda.
Prosecutors said the message was ‘likely to be understood’ as a ‘direct encouragement’ for the ‘commission of acts of terrorism’.
The boy was remanded to youth detention accommodation.
He will appear at the Old Bailey on July 20.
‘Vulnerable young men’