Britain’s youngest terrorist sentenced but avoids custody order

A fourteen-year-old from Darlington has been sentenced after pleading guilty to terror charges, which made him the youngest person to be convicted on terror offences.

The schoolboy previously admitted three counts of possessing information useful to a terrorist, specifically manuals for making explosives, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He was also reportedly active on racist online forums and, according to the prosecution, he regularly used “racist, antisemitic and anti-Islamic language” and made contact with other far-right radicals online.

The boy, who cannot be named, was arrested last year when he was thirteen in an investigation into extreme right-wing terrorism.

He was sentenced at Newton Aycliffe Youth Court by Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring to complete a “high-intensity” referral order for twelve months. The judge believed that a custody order could undo the “rehabilitative” progress that the child, who has learning difficulties, has made.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.

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