Cornwall teenager sentenced for terrorism offences

A 16-year-old boy from Cornwall has been sentenced to a 24 month youth rehabilitation order at the Old Bailey in London for offences against the Terrorism Act.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of disseminating a terrorist publication under section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006 and 10 counts under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 of collecting material of use to a terrorist.

As part of an investigation, launched after his arrest in July 2019 having posted concerning comments online about trying to make a firearm, several digital media devices were seized by police and on review, officers identified a number of instructional manuals including bomb making and firearms manufacture, as well as over 50 detailed ideological texts.

There were also a significant amount of right wing terrorism, white supremacist, homophobic and racist images and videos recovered as well as chat logs containing details of explicit extremist discussions.

Further police investigation identified the boy as the leader of the UK cell for the worldwide online extremist group Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), which he had been a member of since the age of 14. He was responsible for UK recruitment and vetting in order to admit others of a similar mind-set to the group.

Cornwall Commander, Chief Superintendent Jim Pearce said: “Officers from Counter Terrorism Policing South West and Devon and Cornwall Police carried out a detailed investigation into the materials found on the teenagers’ devices and uncovered the extent of his involvement within this extremist group.

“The young age of the offender combined with the extreme hatred displayed and the quick progression of his role within the worldwide extremist group brings into sharp focus the real and clear danger of online radicalisation.

“Whilst there was no risk to our local area, extremist groups like this and their hateful agenda have no place in our society and threaten the safety of our communities and our children. We will continue to relentlessly pursue them using specialist teams within our force area and across the wider South West region.”