Britain’s youngest terrorist who led neo-Nazi cell from grandmother’s Cornwall home is spared jail

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Britain’s youngest convicted terrorist who masterminded a notorious neo-Nazi cell from his grandmother’s cottage, walked free from court today. 

The teenager, who was 13 at the time of the first offence, and 15 at the time of the last one, lives with his grandmother in rural Cornwall. 

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, became the leader of the UK branch of Feuerkrieg Division (FKD) in 2019.

Police attended his grandmother’s home to find a swastika flag and the extremist codes ’14’ and 88′ – standing for ‘Heil Hitler’ painted across the garden shed.

When he was arrested, the teenager told officers he had made homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic posts online to ‘look cool.’ 

He pleaded guilty to 12 offences – two of dissemination of terrorist documents and 10 of possession of terrorist material.

The defendant was handed a 24-month youth rehabilitation order by Judge Mark Dennis QC at the Old Bailey today.

The judge told the boy he had ‘entered an online world of wicked prejudice’ and any reoffending would lead to a ‘spiral of ever-lengthening terms of incarceration’ to protect the public. 

The boy’s offences were committed over a prolonged period and involved the use of technology to conceal identity, the court heard.

However, the judge took account of his guilty plea, expression of remorse and that he was ‘susceptible to the influence others’.

Judge Dennis ruled out custody, saying it would undo the work that is already under way to rehabilitate the youth.

He was sentenced by video-link from Bodmin Magistrates’ Court and was supported by his grandmother, who held his hand. 

The judge added: ‘The wider picture revealed in this case – the actions, words and mindset of teenagers – is deeply concerning.’ 

Throughout the case, the defendant was described as ‘vulnerable’ with an ‘abnormal childhood’.

At the time of the offences, he was living a ‘restricted and isolated’ existence with his grandmother in Cornwall. 

The court had heard that, between October 2018 and July 2019, the boy had collected a significant amount of far-right material.

It included bomb-making instructions, ingredients for napalm, how to make Molotov cocktails, build an AK47 assault rifle, and engage in knife combat.

At the same time, he was active on online platforms – expressing racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views.

In the summer of 2019, he became the British cell leader of the FKD – Feuerkrieg Division – a neo-Nazi group that idolises the likes of mass murderer Anders Breivik.

The banned network favoured actions over words and encouraged individuals to commit ‘lone wolf’ attacks.

The defendant liaised with FKD’s 13-year-old ‘commander’ in Estonia and was responsible for vetting and recruiting members and propaganda.

One of 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.

The court heard that another of the recruits was in fact an undercover officer.

The defendant also commissioned a ‘Nuke London’ poster which bore an image of an atom bomb cloud explosion over the Houses of Parliament with the slogan ‘Sterilise the cesspit that you call London’.

Police raided the defendant’s home on July 23, 2019 as a result of information which suggested he had been trying to construct a weapon.

No weapons were found, but his mobile phone and computer were seized.

During the search, officers found a Nazi flag and a copy of a neo-Nazi text depicting post-apocalyptic sadistic violence.

The numerals ‘1488’ – a Nazi symbol – had also been painted on the garden shed.

In a police interview, the defendant, now 16, denied having had any racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic views, and said his comments and posts were just ‘to look cool’.

He claimed he had been considering leaving FKD for about a month, which was rejected by the prosecution.

Prosecutor Naomi Parsons had said the defendant’s young age was ‘alarming’ and his conduct ‘betrays a maturity beyond his chronological age’.

In mitigation, Deni Matthews said the youth was ‘damaged’ and had ‘sought approval by expressing views he certainly does not ascribe to now and was unlikely to have ascribed to genuinely at the time’. 

Passing sentence, Judge Dennis said the teenager had been ‘immature’ and ‘susceptible’ to the far-right views of those he surrounded himself with online.

The judge said: ‘At the time of the offending the defendant was living a somewhat restricted and isolated life with his grandmother. Unbeknown to his grandmother he had begun an interest in fascism and right-wing extremism.’ 

The judge said psychiatrists and psychologists assessing the youth found that he had developmental problems caused by his ‘abnormal’ upbringing. 

The teenager remained expressionless as he was spared custody.

The judge said a custodial term would ‘exacerbate mental health issues and rekindle self harm issues which first arose following his arrest in 2019. 

Turning to the teenager, the judge told him: ‘You have now had a good deal of time to confront your offending and reflect on what you did.

‘You entered an online world of wicked prejudice and bigotry which has no place in civilised society. You did so at a very young age.

‘Any immaturity and naivety… Can no longer be put forward as an excuse.

‘Any resurfacing of such bigotry or extremist activity will take you in one way, which is a spiral of ever lengthening terms of incarceration in order to protect the public from such conduct.’ 

The court previously heard the teenager moved to Denmark with his mother in his early teenage years and was homeschooled for a brief period. 

In November last year, Dunleavy, 17, from Rugby, Warwickshire, was locked up for five-and-a-half years for preparing for acts of neo-Nazi terrorism. 

Jenny Hopkins, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘People will rightly be disturbed that a 13-year-old should hold the most appalling neo-Nazi beliefs and start collecting manuals on bomb-making and firearms.

‘He claimed not to have racist views and just wanted to appear ‘cool’, but the body of evidence led to him pleading guilty to possession and dissemination of terrorist material.’

‘Sterilize the cesspit that you call London’: Teenager ran a notorious far-right cult and praised terrorists ‘for having the guts to do something’

By Duncan Gardham for MailOnline 

The teenager, who was 13 at the time of the first offence, and 15 at the time of the last one, lives with his grandmother in cottage in rural Cornwall. 

He became involved with Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), which was led by an individual based in Estonia, known as ‘Commander’, and had around 30 members from European countries, USA and Canada.

The British cell, FKD_GB, was formed in June 2019, one month before the teenager’s arrest, and had five members.

Police moved in to search his home address on July 23, 2019 and found a Nazi flag, a hard copy of Iron Gates – a key text for neo-Nazis – and the number ‘1488’ painted onto the garden shed, a Nazi slogan.

The numbers are code for the 14 words: ‘We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children’ and ‘Heil Hitler.’

The teenager had been had been interested in the far-right since early 2018 and joined a forum called Fascist Forge in October 2018, a far-right group which encouraged the creation of small terrorist cells and shared guides on military combat and how to make explosives.

Between October 2018 and July 2019, the teenager collected ‘a significant volume’ of far- right materials and manuals.

He was active on far-right platforms, and was even banned from one for his extreme views.

On various far-right chat forums, and in one-to-one chats, he expressed racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views.

The teenager got in touch with the ‘Commander’ of FKD in May 2019 – who was also aged 13 – and by June 11, he had been appointed the ‘UK cell leader’.

Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, said the teenager was ‘under no illusion as to the nature and purpose of FKD.’ and pledged his allegiance unless ‘FKD got proscribed as a terrorist organisation or SHTF’ – a reference to s**t hits the fan, said to refer to a race war.

As ‘cell leader’, the boy was responsible for recruitment for FKD_GB, using far-right platforms, such as Discord and Fascist Forge to bolster his membership, and vetting applicants who wanted to join.

As recruiter, he would send prospective members a list of questions and then judge their answers with a view to trying to keep out any security risks ‘so that nothing can be traced back to me’.

Among his recruits was Paul Dunleavy, 16, a grammar school pupil from Rugby, with whom the teenager discussed the acquisition of firearms and who was jailed for five and a half years for preparing acts of terrorism last November.

Another, Luke Hunter, 23, used the name Death Cult Posting to pump out propaganda for FKD and was jailed for four years and two months in December.

In keeping with the FKD drive for action rather than words, he initiated discussion in the FKD chat on July 19 about killing drugs dealers, ‘to get a few kills to FKD’s name’ and as a possible way of attracting more ‘serious’ members.

The teenager encouraged members to be ‘active’ and on July 23, he warned that ‘failure of activity will result in expulsion.’

Having established the group, he set up a chat group on an application called Wire on July 10, explaining to a new recruit that FKD is ‘everyone’ and is for ‘general discussion’, whereas FKD_GB is ‘where we plan stuff’.

The teenager had a collection of weapons manuals and, on April 29, he downloaded instructions on how to build a shotgun out of piping.

His internet history from May to July 2019 showed multiple searches about guns and visits to websites selling guns.

On July 7, he asked Commander about the best place to buy an AK47 and then downloaded a document called ‘UndergroundAK47Buildmanual’ and visited a website selling parts for AK47s.

On July 19, the teenager emailed ‘guns of egypt’ and asked: ‘What stock do currently have and is it safe to buy from you?’.

On July 23, Commander and the boy posted about the need for action by FKD members with Commander expressing his disappointment that only two people in the group ‘do something’.

The teenager, using the name ‘Marand’ said: ‘Recruitment has been closed for at least a month. I want the current members to be active and for us to organize. I also want to hold a vc [voice call] with most or all of the members’.

Commander advised him: ‘Get off grid, get together and organize. Stop sitting behind a computer screen. Get out there and organise. Your race needs you.’

On October 14 2019, following examination of the devices seized, police arrested the teenager for terrorism offences.

In police interview, he denied having had any racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic views, and said his comments and posts were ‘to look cool’ and to look like [he] was doing something for ‘the cause’.

He said he had been thinking for about a month that he wanted to leave FKD and Wire and planned to do so on his birthday at the end of July.

Ms Parsons told the court: ‘The Crown does not accept [the boy’s] assertion to police in interview, and later to the psychiatrist and psychologist, that he was planning on leaving FKD.’

Now aged 16, he pleaded guilty to two counts of distribution of terrorist material and 10 counts of possession of material likely to be of use to terrorism.

Deni Matthews, defending, described the teenager as a ‘damaged young man who sought approval by expressing views he certainly does not ascribe to now and was unlikely to have ascribed to genuinely at the time.’  

On various far-right chat forums, and in one-to-one chats, the teenager expressed racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views.

On March 17 2019, he said he wanted to make a nail bomb and kill any ‘n*** and gays’ and on July 4, he talked of ‘shooting up’ a gay pride parade or driving through the parade in a truck full of explosives.

He wanted to gas all Jewish people, ‘shoot up’ homosexuals and ‘hang race mixing w****s and shoot the men’.

On July 13, he told followers he wanted to put a brick through the window of ‘the local n***er’.

The teenager had a copy of Brenton Tarrant’s manifesto, The Great Replacement, saved to this computer in a folder titled ‘Christchurch shootings’.

Also in the folder were two copies of the Facebook Live stream of the shooting, one of which had mocking sound effects. He also had a copy of the live streaming on his mobile phone.

In a discussion about the shootings in the FKD Wire chats, the boy expressed admiration for Tarrant, saying ‘it doesn’t matter what he thought in terms of the nitty gritty he actually had the guts to do something’ – at the same time, applauding his ‘high score’, a reference to the number of Tarrant’s victims.

The boy also had a copy of the manifesto of John Earnest, who killed an individual in a synagogue during the Jewish Passover holiday in San Diego in 2019.

The shooting was the subject of discussion in the FKD chat on July 12 when one member, Ben, told the group that someone in his area was ‘going to move on a Synagogue’ and take ‘direct action after recon is conducted and people are put in position’. FKD members responded with approval.

Also on his computer was an image of ashes with the text ‘Do it again Uncle Adolf’.

Among the documents he had one titled ‘NBK2000.pdf’, standing for Natural Born Killers, which stated: ‘Every resistance group uses assassination (murder) and torture (rape) as weapons against the agents of the State.’

One section titled ‘Random terror & killing’ read: ‘Here is where all the ideas about how to kill random people and cause mass terror are located.’

The teenager’s collection of bomb-making instructions included: The Big Book of Mischief, the Terrorist Handbook, General Thermite Formula, C1 Plastic explosive step by step, Napalm recipe, and Homemade molotov cocktail.

Ms Parsons said aggravating factors, included the significant volume of terrorist publications and the fact the offending was committed over a period of a year

‘There was a specifically targeted audience, namely the far-right extremists on the FKD Wire Chat and communication with known extremists.

‘There was deliberate use of encrypted communications or similar technologies to facilitate the commission of the offence and impede detection.’