Schoolgirl from Manchester owned guide to making DIY bombs

She told police after her arrest that a chemical recipe contained in a sketch pad was in relation to Blue Peter

Images of Isis symbols and flags were also found on the phone. File photo

A 16-year-old schoolgirl has admitted owning terrorist instructions on how to build a bomb, as a court heard that she tried to contact the Isis murderer known as “Jihadi John” and possessed violent images of an execution.

The teenager from Manchester, who cannot be named because of her age, was arrested with a teenage boy involved in a plot to attack police at an Anzac Day parade in Australia. She told police after her arrest that a chemical recipe contained in a sketch pad found during a search of her home was in relation to a Blue Peter children’s TV programme on fireworks.

But an analysis of her BlackBerry phone found instructions for producing a timed circuit, a document about DIY bomb-making and the Anarchist Cookbook from 2000. The girl also had publications by Isis, images of guns, knives and grenades, and photos of jihadi terror “heroes” including the now-dead Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, the Isis leader Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Osama bin Laden.

Images of Isis symbols and flags and quotes – including “I love that I should be killed in the way of Allah” and “only Jihad no democracy” – were also found, along with photos of a dead child, an execution and people about to be beheaded. She had also used her school’s IT system to search for information on Mohammed Emwazi, previously known as Jihadi John.

She was detained by anti-terror police in April along with Britain’s youngest convicted Islamic terrorist, a 14‑year-old boy from Blackburn, Lancashire, who has already admitted encouraging an Isis-inspired terror attack on officers at the annual Anzac parade.

He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey last month to inciting terrorism abroad. But no evidence was found that she was aware or played any part in the Anzac Day plot or any plan to harm others or incite terrorism in the UK or elsewhere.

The girl pleaded guilty at Manchester magistrates’ court to two offences under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000, including possessing documents likely to be of use for a terrorist, yesterday. She was granted bail under curfew and travel restrictions, and will be sentenced on 15 October.