Teenager jailed after inspiring US shooters with neo-nazi videos
Daniel Harris, 19, posted hate-filled messages online that were viewed by killers in Buffalo and Colorado
A BRITISH teenage neo-nazi inspired American mass shooters while he was on probation for defacing a George Floyd mural.
Daniel Harris, 19, from Derbyshire, had been ordered by a judge to wear an electronic tag and work with the youth offending service after he sprayed the words “N---a” and “F--- all n---as” on a mural to the murdered black American.
Harris spent up to 14 hours a day at home on the internet posting hatefuelled messages and videos – some of which were viewed by Payton Gendron, a 19-year-old who killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack in Buffalo, New York, last May.
The following November, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, who also viewed the videos, was arrested after five people were killed and 17 others were wounded during a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. Harris was yesterday sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison at Manchester Crown Court. The 19-year-old called for an armed uprising and celebrated white supremacist murderers, including Norwegian Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant. The latter killed 51 people outside two mosques in New Zealand.
In messages to Gendron, Harris, then 18 and writing under the alias Bookanon, said: “I can’t always add more to my manifesto but what actually matters is going out and carrying out the action. I have loved these 18 years on earth and have learnt quite a lot.”
Sentencing Harris, Judge Patrick Field KC said: “What they did was truly appalling but what they did was no more than you intended to encourage others to do when publishing this material online.”
Referring to Gendron, 19, who has pleaded guilty to murder and hatemotivated terrorism charges, the judge said: “This indicates that at the very least the material you produced and published has had some influence upon the young man, and I note he was a similar age to you, who went out and shot 10 black people dead in a store in Buffalo.” He said he had “no hesitation” in coming to the conclusion that Harris was “highly dangerous” and passed an extended sentence, with a licence period of three years on top of the custodial sentence.
The teenager, who wore a grey suit, was found guilty following a trial of five counts of encouraging terrorism and one count of possession of material for terrorist purposes, relating to a 3D printer he was trying to use to make firearm parts.
The court heard his offences were carried out over a period of 14 months and began when Harris was 17.
Judge Field said: “You were, throughout that time, a propagandist for an extremist right-wing ideology. You were in close touch with other rightwing extremists online and there can be little doubt that you shared ideas between you.”
The court heard the videos he produced glorified mass murderers and encouraged others to emulate them by carrying out similar attacks. One video, called How to Achieve Victory, said there was a need for “total extermination of sub-humans once and for all”, the court was told.
The court heard Harris was previously engaged with a deradicalisation programme, but told the operative his behaviour was a “blip” and denied having any interest in politics.
At the time he made those claims, the court heard, he was creating a video homage to Thomas Mair, who murdered MP Jo Cox. The judge said he demonstrated “a level of deceit and cunning”. Joe Allman, prosecuting, said investigations following the shooting in which five people died at Club Q in Colorado revealed a link between videos posted by Harris and the only suspect in the attack, Anderson Lee Aldrich.
Mr Allman added: “The Crown say it demonstrates that individuals of the greatest concern have accessed the material produced by Mr Harris.”
James Walker, defending, said Harris, of Lord Street, Glossop, was withdrawn from mainstream school at the age of seven and there had been “quite disgraceful failings” by his family and the local authority.
Detective Inspector Chris Brett, from Counter-terrorism Policing in the East Midlands, said: “Anyone who downloads, shares or creates extreme content online risks being arrested under terrorism legislation.
“And don’t think you can hide behind usernames, avatars and other technical blockers, as we have teams of highly skilled digital investigators with a track record for getting to the source.”
He added: “And while not all individuals have the means to act upon their words, in the online space, they can easily spread to inspire others who do.”