Northumberland ‘terror plot’ teen raided in school uniform

The 16-year-old was dressed in his school uniform when counter terror officers swooped on the family home at 7.20am on February 20 last year, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Officers found an “arsenal” of weapons, jurors have been told, including a crossbow, homemade explosives and knives.

The boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, denies preparing acts of terrorism, membership of the proscribed neo-Nazi organisation ‘The Base’, possession of terror documents and sharing terrorist publications.

Detective Sergeant Jonathan Garrad told the court he was among the officers who carried out the raid when the boy and his father were in the house.

Asked what the teenager, then aged 15, did after his arrest, the officer said: “He put his head in his hands, bent over and shook his head.”

Frida Hussain KC, defending, asked if the boy looked “shocked and helpless”.

Det Sgt Garrad said: “That’s what I have written in my statement, yes.”

The Counter Terror Policing North East detective said he carried out a swift initial search to see if anyone else was in the property and he saw the boy had a full-sized skeleton in his bedroom, as well as a Nazi-type cap.

The officer said Army bomb disposal experts and chemical, biological and radiation specialists were called in to assist with the search.

“We had to go through it very carefully and painstakingly to make sure everything was in order and safe,” he said.

It was a week before the keys were returned to the boy’s father, jurors heard.

The teenager is accused of joining The Base, a proscribed neo-Nazi organisation.

In a series of agreed facts, Michelle Heeley KC told the jury that it was banned by the Home Secretary in 2021, three years after it was started in the US by a former FBI analyst.

She said The Base aimed to bring about the collapse of society by starting a race war, with a “white utopia” rising up from the destruction.

The defendant is accused of researching synagogues in the Newcastle area having just watched video of the Christchurch Mosque attack.

Ms Hussain KC addressed the jury to set out that the boy denied “he ever actually intended to carry out any act of terrorism”.

She said the jury will need to consider his life experience and whether there was an “alternative perspective” for his actions.

The trial continues.