British youth admits inciting IS-style terror attack at Anzac Day parade

From the Press Association, via the Lancashire Evening Post

A 15-year-old British boy from Lancashire has admitted encouraging an Islamic State-inspired terror attack targeting police officers at an Anzac Day parade in Australia.

Over a 10-day period, the youngster sent thousands of instant messages to 18-year-old Sevdet Besim, who shared his admiration for the Islamic terror group, the Old Bailey heard. Police examined his mobile phone and uncovered the exchanges after he was arrested on April 2 in the Blackburn area.

In one message on March 18, the boy, who was 14 at the time, said: “Suggest you break into someone’s house and get your first taste of beheading.”

Besim replied that it seemed “a little risky”.

The smartly-dressed, bespectacled British youngster pleaded guilty to inciting terrorism, via videolink from Manchester Crown Court. The charge states that between March 15 and March 26 2015 he “incited a person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the UK, namely the murder of police officers during an attack on a parade to commemorate Anzac Day in Australia”.

Mr Justice Saunders ordered pre-sentence reports to find out if there was any “indoctrination” as he adjourned the case for sentencing at Manchester Crown Court on September 3.

The boy, who wore a grey shirt and tie, is being held in an unidentified youth detention centre in the North West of England.

Transcripts of Besim’s alleged exchanges with the boy have emerged in Australian media reports. According to the reports, the alleged plot was uncovered by secret surveillance of Besim – a friend of another teenager, Numan Haider, who was shot dead after being suspected of threatening Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. Communications allegedly revealed Besim was planning to target police and intelligence officers with firearms and “a massive machete”.

The boy urged him on and suggested videotaping the attack and sending it to an IS recruiter.

He wrote: “You are a lone wolf, a wolf that begs Allah for forgiveness a wolf that doesn’t fear blame of the blamers. I’m (sic) I right?”

Besim allegedly replied: “Pretty much.”

The boy also instructed Besim to “start dressing like a Kuffar”, and asked if he was “willing for a bullet to go through you”.

During another conversation days later, the British boy told Besim not to underestimate the “difficulty of beheading a person” and advised him: “U gotta be a lion especially that ur doing it in public.”