UK’s youngest terror offender escapes prison sentence

The UK’s youngest terror offender walked free from court on Tuesday after receiving a non-custodial sentence at the Old Bailey.

The now 16-year-old boy who cannot be named was 13 when he committed his first terror offence and had recruited neo-Nazi members from his grandmother’s house.

He admitted to 12 terror offences, including downloading a bomb-making manual, dissemination, and possession of documents on making explosives, guns, and weapons.

Judge Mark Dennis QC said, “A non-custodial term would…best serve the need to ensure the critical rehabilitation process is successful in his case, and the public protected from any future offending at his hands.”

He told the Old Bailey that a custodial sentence would undo the progress made since the boy was arrested in July 2019 and could cause irreversible harm for the future.

The boy was given a two-year Youth Rehabilitation Order and was ordered to undergo counterterrorism interventions, as well as being banned from contacting extremists or using any internet-enabled device that cannot be checked by youth offending services or the police.

A Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO) is a community sentence during which a court may include one or more requirements intended to serve as punishment, protection of the public, reducing re-offending, and reparation.

The available requirements within a YRO include, but are not limited to, an electronic monitoring requirement, an activity or programme requirement, and a curfew.

Previously, Britain’s youngest terror offender was a 14-year-old boy from Blackburn, Lancashire, who was jailed for life in October 2015 after admitting to inciting terrorism overseas.

However, last month, the Parole Board decided he could be released.

Since February 2020, the Counter-Terrorism Bill ended the automatic early release of terrorist offenders.

Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland QC said, “Coupled with stronger measures to manage terrorists behind bars, this Counter-Terrorism Bill toughens restrictions on offenders’ communications, increases the number of specialists staff managing them and will ensure they are monitored effectively.”

The bill forces dangerous terrorist offenders who receive extended determinate sentences to serve the whole time behind bars and ensure those convicted of serious terror offences spend a mandatory minimum of 14 years in prison.

This includes serious offenses such as preparing acts of terrorism or directing a terrorist organisation.

However, the 16-year-old boy received a non-custodial sentence despite admitting to founding and overseeing a British cell of the terrorist group, Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), which was banned as a terrorist organisation by the British government last year.

The case is a timely reminder of potential extremism and draws attention to the growing real danger of online radicalisation.

Children are more likely to be exposed to greater threats online and laws may have to shift to reflect youth terror offenders – terrorists cannot be defined as an adult-only crime.

Millie Lockhart

Featured image courtesy of Bill Oxford via Unsplash. This image has in no way been altered. Image license can be found here.