Teenager charged with encouraging far-right terror attacks and making indecent images of children

Boy, 17, charged with total of 14 terror offences

(PA)

A 17-year-old boy has been charged with encouraging far-right terror attacks and possessing a hoard of terrorist material.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with a total of 14 terror offences and two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

He was arrested in south-west London in June and charged on Wednesday following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s counter terrorism command.

The boy was charged with the indirect encouragement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, disseminating a terrorist publication and 12 counts of possessing a document containing information useful for terror attacks.

The Independent understands that the charges relate to alleged right-wing extremism.

He has been released on bail and is scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 27 March.

The charge was announced days after official statistics showed the number of white terror suspects being arrested in Britain has outstripped those of Asian appearance for the second year in a row.

Official figures showed that that 117 white people were arrested on suspicion of terror offences in 2019, compared with 111 Asian suspects and 21 black suspects.

The change comes after increased police operations against far-right extremists, including members of National Action.

The neo-Nazi terrorist group was banned in 2016 but split into factions and successor organisations that operated under different names.

The head of counterterror police declared right-wing extremism as the fastest-growing terror threat in the UK in September, and intelligence agencies have been brought in to tackle it for the first time.

A total of 25 attack plots have been foiled since March 2017 – 16 Islamist, eight far-right and one other.