Teenager inspired by Southport attack pleads guilty to terrorism offences

A 17-year-old who was inspired by the Southport attacks has pleaded guilty to terrorism offences.

The boy pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of documents likely to be used in preparing acts of terrorism.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 16 at the time of the offences.

The teenager from Merseyside, who is white, planned to copy the Southport attack, by attacking a Taylor Swift-themed event wearing a green hoodie.

The boy had visited Southport and taken pictures of the area. He also researched a Taylor Swift themed event and downloaded the same al-Qaeda manual used by Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana to produce ricin. The teenager had researched school shootings, incels, Reform UK and Islam.

He was arrested in August 2025 after calling police to tell them what he was planning. Police attended his grandparents house, from where he had made the call. There, they found a back containing knives.

On his phones notes, police found references to incense, spurgcels (incense who have Asperger's Syndrome) and 'Axelcels'. There was also poetry in honour of Rudakubana, which is believed to have been generated by ChatGPT.

There were also notes on a plan to carry out a copycat attack and another plan to use a vehicle as a weapon or make a bomb.

The teen has now pleaded guilty to possession of the Improvised Munitions Handbook, the Anarchist Cookbook 2000, a recipe for making ricin and the al-Qaeda training manual.

He was not charged with planning or preparing a terrorist attack, as the prosecution did not believe there was a terrorist motive.