Boy, 17, arrested by counter terror police after pro Hamas social media post

Thousands of social media posts have been referred to Met’s counter terror since 7 October

A file picture of counter terror police (Peter Byrne/PA)

A teenage boy was arrested in a dawn raid by anti-terror police after allegedly making a social media post praising Hamas.

The 17-year-old was detained at his home in south London amid a spike of 2,200 referrals to the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command since the Hamas massacre on 7 October.

He was arrested on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation, contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and taken to a central London police station.

The post was assessed by specialist officers and deemed to potentially be in breach of terrorism laws, and the case was passed to a team of detectives to carry out an investigation.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command said: “We continue to see a large number of referrals from the public where they are concerned about potentially extremist and terrorist content being posted online and on social media.

“Every referral is looked at by specialist officers and as we have here, we will look to take positive action and arrest those who we suspect are committing terrorist offences in this way.”

Counter-terror officers are probing 500 posts looking for potential offences and have also requested the removal of a number of URLs which were identified as hosting “terrorist content”.

Counter-protesters and police in Parliament Square in central London (PA) (PA Wire)

The arrest came amid calls for police could be given new powers to protect war memorials after pro-Palestinian protesters were accused of “desecrating” a monument by climbing on it.

The Metropolitan Police said the behaviour of the protesters in London was “unacceptable” but no laws had been broken.

Protesters climbed on the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London after a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday night.

The Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner (Alamy/PA)

Responding to footage of the event online, veterans affairs minister Johnny Mercer, a former artillery officer, said: “I will not stand idly by whilst individuals think this is the correct way to treat these memorials.”

Home Secretary James Cleverly, who was a Territorial Army officer in the Royal Artillery, said he would examine whether the police needed new powers.

“I’m not going to let my personal feelings cloud my judgment on this but it is clearly wrong, and the police have said that they recognise it is deeply disrespectful for people to climb on war memorials,” he told LBC.

On ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he added: “We are looking at what additional powers the police may need.

“These – and the police have said this – are deeply disrespectful actions. The war memorials recognise the sacrifice people have made for our freedom, and abusing, desecrating behaviour like this is deeply, deeply offensive.

“I will look at what further measures need to be taken so the police can take action on this.

“I have no doubt the vast majority of the British population, and indeed, I suspect, the vast majority of people in those marches, would find that behaviour completely unacceptable and they would want us to give the police the power to take action.

“I’ll be looking at that as part of my new job.”