Teenage boy 'looked up Isle of Wight Festival as location for terror attack', jury hears

A teenager looked up the Isle of Wight Festival as a potential target for a terror attack he planned after developing an "Islamic extremist mindset", a jury has heard.

The 16-year-old boy, who was 15 at the time and cannot be named due to his age, is also alleged to have sent videos of violence online to those who appeared to share a "similar mindset".

As part of his alleged plot to carry out a terror attack, he is said to have looked up weapons, vehicles, and stab vests, and obtained a knife by July 2022.

After discarding the festival as a target because he did not have a car or other vehicle, the youth is then alleged to have drawn up plans to stab people who worked with him at a specialist education provider.

A handwritten note to his family in the event anything happened to him, which said whatever he did would be driven by hatred of non-believers, is alleged to have been found after his arrest.

Prosecutor Serena Gates told the court the defendant is autistic but "bright, articulate and capable of exchanging ideas with others".

Jurors heard the FBI alerted UK counter-terror police to a user of the messaging app Discord who was allegedly plotting an attack on July 11 2022, who was later identified as the defendant.

The words of a further note said the staff member "shouldn’t feel safe", jurors were told.

The defendant converted to Islam in late 2021.

One tutor said the teenager’s conversion was initially assessed to be "having a positive impact" on the defendant’s life and he was "given space" to explore it.

The defendant later began saying he no longer wanted to work with women and discussed moving to Saudi Arabia before deciding the country was "too liberal", jurors were told.

The defendant also expressed support for attacks on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, the prosecution said.

One tutor noticed the defendant had a picture of Osama bin Laden as his phone screen picture around a year-and-a-half before his arrest, but was not too concerned as he "was often trying to shock people with what he said", it was claimed.

On the day of the defendant’s arrest, the tutor said he saw what he thought were knife marks on the front and back of the defendant’s bag as he reached to get snacks out, the jury was told.

Staff had considered referring him to the Government’s Prevent anti-radicalisation programme but the defendant became angry when he heard about this, the court heard.

He denies one count of preparing acts of terrorism, three counts of disseminating terrorist publications and one count of possessing a knife in public.

The trial continues.

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