A teenage neo-Nazi group leader from Cornwall has become one of Britain’s youngest convicted terrorists.
The 16-year-old youth appeared before the Old Bailey on Monday remotely from Plymouth to be sentenced.
He admitted 12 offences – two of dissemination of terrorist documents and 10 of possession of terrorist materials.
The boy was aged just 13 when he began gathering terrorist material and went on to share far-right extremist ideology in online chatrooms at the age of 14, before becoming the leader of a neo-Nazi cell.
The court heard that the youth collected a significant amount of far-right material and manuals between October 2018 and October 2019, and was also active on online platforms, expressing racist, homophobic and antisemitic views.
He talked about “gassing” Jewish people, hanging gay people and wanting to “shoot up their parades”, the court heard.
The court also heard how he came to be the British cell leader of the FKD – Feuerkrieg Division – a neo-Nazi group that idolises the likes of Norweigan far-right terrorist Anders Breivik.
The defendant was said to have liaised with FKD’s 13-year-old “commander” in Estonia and was responsible for vetting and recruiting members and propaganda.
Among his five recruits was teenager Paul Dunleavy, who was convicted of terrorism offences relating to his activities as a member of FKD in 2019 and with whom he discussed the acquisition of firearms, the court was told.