Crossbow and replica Nazi garb ‘found in bedroom of boy accused of terror plot’

The boy, who has not been named, was allegedly found to have been planning a huge terror attack on synagogues in his local area, and had replica SS-style caps stashed in his room

A teenage boy accused of plotting a terror attack on local synagogues wrote in his journal how some pupils at his school “should be shot”, a court has heard. Police found an “arsenal” of weapons, including a crossbow, knives, a gas-powered air pistol and airsoft rifles, when they raided the 16-year-old’s home in Northumberland, Leeds Crown Court has heard.

Army bomb disposal experts as well as chemical, biological and radiation specialists were called to the scene after home-made explosives were discovered, the court heard. Jurors were shown images of the boy’s bedroom, in which counter-terror police found a replica SS-style cap, a full-sized skeleton with a mask and posters in support of the banned neo-Nazi organisation called The Base.

Police also found matches and nails taped closely together, as well as a spent shotgun cartridge which had been filled with a white powder. The name “George Floyd” was written on one of the air weapons near the trigger, the court heard.

The jury was shown photos of the defendant’s journal recovered from his home in which he allegedly wrote: “I swear to God I just hate my f****** school. I want to do horrible things to the people in my school, some of them should be shot.”

On the same page the boy ranked mass murderers, with the neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Breivik topping his list, Leeds Crown Court heard. The defendant, who cannot be identified due to his age, denies preparing acts of terrorism, being a member of a proscribed organisation – The Base, possessing terror documents and publishing terror publications.

On the second day of his trial, jurors heard how he was dressed in his school uniform when counter-terror officers swooped at 7.20am on February 20 last year. Detective Sergeant Jonathan Garrad 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 told the court: “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”.

DS 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.

“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 which was banned by the Home Secretary in 2021. In a series of agreed facts, Michelle Heeley KC told the jury that was 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 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.

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