Teenager who plotted to carry out Jihadist attacks sentenced in court 

A teenager has been sentenced following his guilty plea to terror charges.

Matthew King, 19, from Wickford in Essex, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to a life-sentence with a minimum of six years imprisonment. Before his arrest, Mr King engaged in a number of conversations online with a seventeen-year-old known to the Court as “Miss A”. 

Mr King’s arrest came following an intervention from his mother, who reported him to Prevent, the Government’s counter-terrorism agency. She had become increasingly concerned after he had told her that he wanted to move to Syria with Miss A, whom he had claimed was a doctor or a junior doctor. 

After his arrest, a police officer overheard Mr King on the phone with his mother, saying: “When I get out they will be controlling me, they probably won’t let me have a driving licence because I’ll probably run people over.”

In his conversations with Miss A, with whom Mr King is believed to have had an online romantic relationship, he reportedly said: “I guess Jihadi love is powerful. I just want to kill people.” The two had also discussed plans to target marines and a voice message to Miss A was found in which Mr King described his plans to force two marines to rape each other. 

Investigations into his online activity also uncovered searches for ISIS tactical knife training videos and videos made by Mr King of uniformed police officers. One video showed four officers outside of Stratford Magistrates’ Court, of which he uploaded a photo on Snapchat with the caption, “Target Acquired”. 

In his sentencing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC remarked: “In my judgement you are someone where there is a significant risk to members of the public or serious harm.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2021 showed that almost eight in ten British Jews consider the threat from Islamists to be very serious.

Image credit: Metropolitan Police