Videos show how Islamic State terrorist did surveillance of police officers as he plotted attack

  • Matthew King filmed police officers outside a court and at a rail station, and walking past the court himself

A home-grown Islamic State fanatic who plotted to attack police officers or soldiers took surveillance videos of potential targets.

Matthew King, a teenage terrorist who has been jailed for life with a minimum term of six years, had filmed police officers outside Stratford Magistrates Court and at the railway station last year.

CCTV footage captured from the magistrates court also shows the young terrorist walking past the officers after filming them.

Prosecutors said these surveillance videos had been overlaid with Islamic chants - and comments such as "target acquired".

And in separate footage released by the Met Police, the 19-year-old can be seen filming himself wearing a balaclava.

King, from Wickford in Essex, had made videos expressing his admiration for the Islamic State.

He had also set up an online account with a knife retailer in December 2021, and in March the following yea bought “tactical” gloves and goggles from an army surplus store.

The teenager had bought 'tactical gloves' and goggles in preparation for his terror attack. Police also seized a camouflage shirt. Credit: Met Police

The teenager had taken other photos and videos at police stations and army bases.

On 17 May last year, he made a short film of the Army Barracks in Stratford and had briefly considered targeting someone linked to the military base.

The court had heard how King expressed a desire to “torture, mutilate and kill military personnel” as he prepared to stake out a British Army barracks in east London.

Matthew King at the army barracks in Stratford, east London, on 17 May, 2022. Credit: Met Police

The teenager pleaded guilty in January to preparing terrorist acts between December 2021 and May 2022 and was sentenced on Friday.

Police arrested King in May last year after tip-offs from members of the public that he posted a video on a WhatsApp group on 13 April, last year.

In it was an image of a male holding a knife with the words: “Those who said that there is no jihad and no battle. They are lying!”

Matthew King from Wickford in Essex pleaded guilty to preparing terrorist acts. Credit: Met Police

DCI Dominic Murphy, head of the Met Police's Counter-Terrorism unit, described King as a "committed self-initiated terrorist" who had "radicalised himself in his room using the internet".

He said police made the arrest believing an "imminent terrorist attack" was possible and would pose "a really serious threat" to the public, police and army personnel.

King, who had made videos expressing his admiration for the Islamic State (IS), had wanted to travel to Syria to join the group - according to the defence. They said if this were not possible, he would consider carrying out an act of terrorism in the UK.

But the prosecution rejected this claim that an attack in the UK was a “fall-back option”.

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