Teen who wrote far-right slogans in exam sentenced

The teenager admitted 10 terrorism offences including

A 16-year-old boy who scrawled far-right slogans on a mock GCSE exam paper and filled notebooks with racist thoughts has been sentenced.

The teenager, from Stockton-on-Tees, who cannot be named because of his age, had admitted 10 terrorism offences including dissemination of terrorist publications and racially aggravated criminal damage.

Leeds Crown Court heard how teachers at the boy's school were so concerned about his behaviour that they reported him to counter-terrorism police.

The judge, Tom Bayliss KC, said even though the boy "deserved" to be jailed, he had decided to sentence him to a three-year youth rehabilitation order.

He was also made subject to a criminal behaviour order for three years.

The hearing heard that the boy's teachers told police he drew a picture of Auschwitz concentration camp and wrote "lies" on the image.

When officers went to his home in December 2023, his mother showed them a catalogue of extreme right-wing material, including a drawing of a gas mask and a written slogan suggesting not enough people had died in the Holocaust.

'Groomed online'

Police also discovered 78 chats the boy had engaged with on the Telegram platform, which included the sharing of videos of terror atrocities.

In one, the defendant had added a soundtrack to a live stream video of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks in New Zealand.

The court also heard that the police found a video of the teenager wearing a skull mask and throwing a petrol bomb.

In mitigation, the court heard the boy was "very vulnerable" and had been groomed after speaking to other people during online role play games.