15-yr-old becomes Britain’s youngest convicted terrorist

The youth – Britain’s youngest terrorist – was detained for life and told he must serve at least five years in custody before he could be considered for release.

Judge John Saunders said the teenager, who can’t be named because of his age, would only be released when he was no longer a danger to the public.

According to a security official who appeared on ABC’s The 7:30 Report earlier in the year, the plot involved running a police officer over and killing him with a knife.The men then planned to take the officer’s gun and go on a homicidal (and likely suicidal) shooting rampage.

The court heard he was put into contact with Besim by a Daesh recruiter. The teenager, now 15, incited alleged Australian jihadist Sevdet Besim to carry out a “major terrorist plot” which had reached its “late stages” before being thwarted by police, Manchester Crown Court heard. “He would have welcomed the notoriety that he would have achieved”.

The judge said it was “chilling” that someone so young could be so radicalized that he was prepared to see people die.

“The British teen, from Blackburn in northwest England, was first arrested in March over suspicion of threatening to kill his teachers”.

Arguing for a lenient sentence, Pickup said the defendant, who pleaded guilty in July to inciting terrorism overseas, accepted his crimes were “barbaric, immoral and wholly wrong”.

Besim is awaiting trial in Australia.

“Described as the ‘organizer and adviser, ‘ the teenager, from Blackburn, in Lancashire, was convicted of plotting to kill police officers on Anzac Day, held every April 25 to commemorate the Battle of Gallipoli”.

Justice Saunders said the boy had made “considerable progress” at a detention center, where he is on a United Kingdom government program designed “to de-radicalize him”.

In a statement after the sentencing, local police said there was no suggestion the boy was looking to target his local community in the UK.

They were “relieved” that no-one was injured as a effect of his behaviour and now wished to begin “trying to fix the damage”.