Terror-accused student Luke Skelton 'ashamed' of past views

Newcastle's Forth Banks police station was a potential target, a jury heard

A student accused of preparing acts of terrorism told a jury he was "embarrassed and ashamed" of the extreme views he once held.

Luke Skelton, 18, regarded his previous behaviour on chat rooms as "idiotic", Teesside Crown Court heard.

A jury has been told he wrote of wanting to build a bomb to attack a police station.

Mr Skelton, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, denies preparing to commit terrorist acts.

Crispin Aylett QC, defending, asked his client if he had any intention of carrying out terrorism, which the defendant denied.

"By that I mean an act of serious violence, to damage property that would hurt people?'' Mr Aylett continued.

Again, Mr Skelton replied: "No."

He said that with hindsight he felt "embarrassed and maybe ashamed" by his previously held racist, sexist and anti-Semitic beliefs.

He was asked about a video downloaded to his phone, which had clips of Adolf Hitler, Nazi soldiers, swastika flags and scenes of World War Two, set to music from the film Ghostbusters.

He told the court he did not believe he was a fascist and did not admire Hitler, and described the clips as "jokes".

'Pushing boundaries'

The trial has previously heard the Gateshead College student wanted a "full-on war" and photographs and data from his phone suggested he had carried out a "reconnaissance" of police stations he intended to target.

Concerns about his behaviour were first raised by college staff when he used an image of Enoch Powell as his online profile picture.

Mr Skelton told the court he had used the picture "simply to push boundaries".

He was referred to the Prevent anti-terror programme by staff at the college in November 2020.

The court heard that in a conversation with a friend the defendant said he was a traditionalist, imperialist, nationalist and fascist and that he held "many right-wing views.''

But he told the jury that when he had been discussing politics with his friend, he had been joking.

Mr Skelton, who was diagnosed with autism as a child, said there were many things he could no longer remember and "a lot of the memories of events pre-arrest have been erased".

The trial continues.