Teenager from Washington appears in court on terror charges

Luke Skelton intended to target police stations in the region after looking up the ingredients required to make an explosive, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The autistic teenager travelled to Newcastle from his Washington home to photograph one of the city’s police stations as well as creating his own ‘political manifesto’ supporting white supremacist theories.

Jurors heard how he took to online social media networks to share his race hate and downloaded videos of other terrorist attacks including one of Anders Breivik, a far-right terrorist who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011.

Read more: Convicted killer blinded a fellow inmate in a brutal razor attack 

Skelton also created a ‘final note’ explaining the reasoning behind his plan to incite a race war by launching terrorist attacks after talking of his admiration for Adolf Hitler and British Fascist Oswald Mosely.

Forth Banks Police Station. Picture: GOOGLE

Nicholas De La Poer QC, prosecuting, outlined the case against the 18-year-old who was arrested for a second time in September last year after he carried out the ‘hostile reconnaissance' of Forth Bank police station.

He said: “His plan was to commit terrorist acts. He wasn’t in Newcastle that day to commit those terrorist acts. He hadn’t got to that point by then."

The barrister told jurors how Skelton dreamed of returning the country back to the 1900s when it was at its peak of Imperialism and ethnic diversity was very limited and shared his vision with people on social media.

On his Discord account, Skelton posted: “Back then we called them what they are which is backward and savage I don’t care, f*** them. They are a disgusting race of barbarians which we let in, they don’t fear us for this exact b*****t your (sic) pulling up.

“We should have every right to despise them and want the subhumans gone if the vast majority were good people there (sic) countries wouldn’t be backward barbarian s**tholes.”

Jurors heard how concerns were raised about Skelton's behaviour when disturbing images were found in one of his workbooks and he was referred to government agency Prevent in an attempt to address his far-right radicalisation.

Far-right extremist Anders Breivik making a Nazi salute while appearing in court

He was arrested for the first time in June last year and when he was told he would be facing no further action, he wrote on Discord - “I feel like a disgusting parasite for not doing something earlier and to become the great man of history this is what I must do just as I planned. The way to make up for me failing to do this.”

Mr De La Poer said the following day he posted under the Adolf Hitler user name, he wrote - “also right now am feeling very angry, useless and miserable than ever before the fact is the police are coming over in 40 minutes and it looks like the case maybe dropped but that terrifies me far more than a life sentence could do … because if they drop the case it means I have become a coward am angry at myself because I never did anything before the arrest”.

Skelton, of Oxclose, Washington, denies a charge of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.

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