Jump directly to the content

Schoolboy, 14, charged over ‘jihadi beheading plot’

Youngest person in the UK to be held over terrorist offences

A SCHOOLBOY of 14 has been charged with allegedly inciting a jihadist in Australia to behead someone in a sickening terrorist plot.

The youth, who can’t be named for legal reasons, has become the youngest person in the UK to be charged with terrorist offences.

He was arrested by counter-terror cops on Saturday in a co-ordinated raid with Aussie authorities to smash an alleged Lee Rigby-style plot.

An Australian court heard how the Brit Muslim is said to have called 18-year-old Sevdet Besim, who was arrested by cops on allegations of conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

Police in Australia believed the terrorist cell was planning to carry out an attack on the centenary ANZAC day tributes to soldiers killed in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign in World War One.

The Brit, from Blackburn, Lancashire, was first arrested by police on April 2 but was bailed while his phone and computer were trawled.

Last week cops passed information from his devices to Australian authorities which resulted in the raids on Saturday and his re-arrest.

He has now been charged with two offences of inciting terrorism overseas and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.

Deborah Walsh, Deputy Head of Counter Terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Following an investigation by police in the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, we have today authorised charges for a 14 year old male of two offences of inciting terrorism overseas, contrary to section 59 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

“The first allegation is that, between 15 and 26 March 2015, the defendant incited another person to commit an act of terrorism, namely to carry out an attack at an ANZAC parade in Australia with the aim of killing and/or causing serious injury to people.

“The second allegation is that on 18 March 2015, the defendant incited another person to behead someone in Australia.

Harun Causevic, 18, of Melbourne, has also been charged over the alleged plot while another 18-year-old man has been charged over weapons offences.