UK terror plots: Durham teenager asks to remain anonymous

The teenager drew up a "hit list" of areas he wanted to attack

The youngest person to be convicted of planning a terrorist attack in the UK is bidding to keep his identity secret.

The 17-year-old, from Durham, was detained in January after his conviction for several neo-Nazi terror offences.

He has not been publicly named due to his age and his legal team has applied for him to remain anonymous when he turns 18.

Only a small number of criminals have ever been granted ongoing anonymity.

'Natural sadist'

Manchester Crown Court was told that a hearing in early January would deal with the application.

The County Durham teenager's trial heard he was an adherent of "occult neo-Nazism" and had described himself as a "natural sadist".

His attack preparations included researching explosives, listing potential targets, and trying to obtain a bomb-making chemical.

He is currently serving a sentence of six years and eight months.

In a separate hearing at Leeds Youth Court, the boy was given another custodial term for unrelated child sexual offences.

Appearing via video link, he was given an 18-month sentence for five sexual assaults against a girl.

The boy had denied the offences but was found guilty at trial earlier this year.

District Judge Richard Kitson told the teenager the term would run concurrently with his current sentence, saying the offences were "so serious" that only immediate custody was appropriate.

Courts can ban the publication of a child defendant's identity but such orders cease to apply once they reach 18.

In 2019, a boy from Blackburn, who had admitted inciting a terrorist attack in Australia when he was 14, was allowed to remain anonymous after the High Court ruled that naming him was likely to cause "serious harm".

Lifelong anonymity has also been granted after release to the Newcastle child killer Mary Bell; Maxine Carr, who obstructed police investigating the 2002 Soham murders by her partner Ian Huntley; and Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger.