Wiltshire A-level student guilty of terrorism offences

Malakai Wheeler denied being a white supremacist

An A-level student has been found guilty of sharing weapons manuals and terrorist documents.

Malakai Wheeler, 18, of Stamford Close, Swindon, Wiltshire, was convicted by a jury at Winchester Crown Court of six charges, including possessing a copy of the Terrorist Handbook.

Judge Jane Miller KC told Wheeler, who was 16-years-old when he committed the offences, to expect a custodial sentence.

He will be sentenced on 3 November.

Along with the Terrorist Handbook, police found copies of the Anarchist's Handbook and a document called 'Homemade Detonators' in Wheeler's bedroom.

The teenager was also convicted of sharing 92 documents and 35 images in a chatroom, as well as two other charges of sharing instructions for the use of items that could be used to perform acts of terrorism, including smoke grenades.

Wheeler told the court he had an interest in national socialism as well as anti-Zionism and admitted using a Nazi swastika as part of his profile image on the social media platform Telegram.

He said he downloaded the documents because he wanted to create an archive of items he believed would be deleted altogether from Telegram and the internet.

Documents found in Wheeler's bedroom included instructions on how to make weapons

Wheeler said he accessed videos from the terrorist group calling itself Islamic State, which showed people being killed, out of "morbid curiosity", adding: "It's not something you see in every day life."

Explaining why he downloaded instructions on how to make weapons, he said they could have been useful in the case of "social disorder".

He said: "Weapons could be useful if there was a serious emergency. Covid showed things could come out of the blue. It could be an economic problem or a foreign invasion - things can just pop out of nowhere."

Wheeler also said he accessed a file called 100 Deadly Skills because he felt they could have been useful - with their descriptions of techniques to escape from a hotel or "stop yourself from drowning if you were tied up in the water".

The teenager also accepted being photographed in a skull mask and doing a Nazi salute.

'Deeply entrenched'

Describing his links to national socialism, he said: "I have an interest and sympathy with some of it but not all of it."

Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, head of counter terrorism policing North East, said: "Although only 16 at the time of his arrest, Wheeler was deeply entrenched in a Telegram chat group committed to extreme right-wing ideology.

"He was not simply curious, or a passive observer within the group.

"He clearly shared the same mindset as other members and was very active when it came to promoting racist and anti-semitic views and propaganda."

He added: "It is important young people recognise the potential impact of their online activity, before they cross a line into criminality, or engage in harmful or dangerous behaviours."