A neo-Nazi teenage boy in the UK who ranted about hanging gays and shooting up pride parades online has avoided jail after becoming Britain’s youngest terror offender.
The 16-year-old, who can’t be named, dodged jail time at the Central Criminal Court of England on Monday. He instead received a 24-month youth rehabilitation order including counter-terrorism interventions.
He admitted 10 counts of possessing terrorist material and two of disseminating terrorist publications.
Now 16, the boy was just 13 years old when he downloaded a bomb-making manual and joined a neo-Nazi website.
In vile online messages, the teenager ranted about hanging gay people and “shooting up their parades” as well as “gassing” Jewish people and murdering non-whites, the court heard.
The teen lived with his grandmother in Cornwall in England’s southwest, and conducted the activities out of the garden shed. Police found Nazi flags inside, and his stash of terrorist material on his devices.
He had manuals on making explosives, learning knife fighting skills, and building assault rifles at home.
At age 14, he founded a British cell of banned neo-Nazi terror group Feuerkrieg Division (FKD). He went on to “recruit” five others, including another 13-year-old in Estonia.
FKD advocates violence against non-white people in its propaganda, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
The teenage boy claimed he didn’t have racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic views. He told arresting police he wanted “to look cool” and “look like [he] was doing something for the cause.”
Read the article by Jordan Hirst in Q News.