Teenager ‘planned far-right terror attack’ on police stations after being mentored by Prevent scheme
A teenager planned a far-right terror attack after being referred to the government’s Prevent scheme over extremism concerns, a court has heard.
Luke Skelton, now 18, is accused of carrying out “hostile reconnaissance” of police stations in Newcastle and writing a manifesto and “final note” to spread his message after the attack.
He denies preparing acts of terrorism in the year to October 2021.
Teesside Crown Court heard that Mr Skelton wrote that he aimed to “accelerate the coming collapse and racial war” in Britain, when people would die “in the thousands”.
The note was drafted in January 2021, months after staff at his school had reported him to Prevent.
Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer QC told jurors that teachers at Gateshead College “became concerned” during the first term of his second year, when Mr Skelton was 17.
They saw “images of concern” in a workbook, and when challenged the pupil told them he had “strong views about immigration and held right wing views”.
The court heard that a referral was made to Prevent in November 2020, but Mr Skelton did not have his first meeting with an “intervention provider” until the following March.
Mr de la Poer said that in the intervening time, the teenager viewed online material “consistent with ideas of white supremacy and fascism”, researched the manufacture of dynamite and wrote the “final note”.
On 8 March 2021, he allegedly wrote: “I simply could not bear to look upon my descendants having known I did nothing as to give them an actual homeland or not to fight.”
The teenager attended the first of eight sessions with a Prevent intervention provider 10 days later, and the court heard that he withdrew from the programme in May 2021.
He is accused of continuing extremist activity during the period, including downloading a video featuring Adolf Hitler, researching how to make napalm and recording himself making a speech about a coming race war.
“You will be able to judge for yourselves whether he had been successfully de-radicalised at the point he refused to engage any further with Prevent,” Mr de la Poer told jurors.
“The case of the prosecution is that he certainly had not.”
Jurors were shown messages allegedly written by the defendant on Discord under the name “Adolf Hitler” the following summer, where he called non-whites “backward and savage”, and referred to “subhumans”.
Mr Skelton was arrested on 12 June 2021 on suspicion of possessing documents useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism, but released on bail.
The court heard that the following month, police returned his electronic devices and informed him that no further action would be taken.
He allegedly wrote on Discord that he was “angry” at himself for not “doing anything” before being arrested.
“I feel like a disgusting parasite for not doing something earlier and to become the great man of history this is what I must do just as I planned,” he allegedly wrote. “The way to make up for me failing to do this.”
