‘TikTok jihadist’ Kyle Marcano was ‘fully-fledged’ Islamic State member, says anti-terror cop

From the Birmingham Mail

A self-styled “TikTok jihadist” who wanted to be a terrorist sniper was a “fully-fledged” Islamic State member, a senior police officer said. Kyle Marcano, from Birmingham, took an ‘oath of allegiance’ to the group and set up a Telegram group chat where he encouraged others, including a boy aged 14, to join with him.

He was jailed for 11 years at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, Thursday, August 1, after a jury found the 28-year-old guilty of being a member of IS and sharing extremist material on WhatsApp. He ran a social media account called ‘TikTokJihadist’, the court heard, and did not attend school past the age of 11, when he was kicked out.

After the sentencing hearing, West Midlands Police said Marcano had pledged an oath of allegiance to the then-leader of Islamic State. He was arrested in March 2023 for an unrelated offence where officers seized his phone, which revealed his inclusion in a chat group which shared terrorism material. He was then arrested on suspicion of terror offences.

Marcano was excluded from school at the age of 11 and has a violent past including offences for robbery, wounding and blackmail. He became radicalised whilst in prison and was declared ‘dangerous’ at Birmingham Crown Court

Between January 9 and mid-March last year more than 5,000 messages were exchanged. Marcano posted a three-minute and 15-second video produced by IS’s media wing in 2016 that claimed the USA and other countries were against Islam and purported that Jihad – holy war – was a ‘defensive’ attitude that was an ‘obligation’ of all Muslim people.

It promoted the ‘wholesale killing of non-believers’ and showed ‘graphic executions’, the court heard. Marcano also shared a 13-minute video which was put out by Islamic State in 2014 to recruit foreign fighters, urging people to sacrifice their ‘fat job, big car and families’ for the ‘honour and happiness’ of Jihad. He incurred another dissemination offence by posting a still from an execution video which showed the body of an Iraqi security fighter who had seemingly been executed.

Judge Paul Farrer KC concluded there was very little mitigation and evidence of remorse given Marcano had lied to the jury and repeated his lies to a probation officer afterwards. He stated the defendant became radicalised in prison between 2020 to 2021 whilst serving a sentence for wounding a black male, then committed his latest offences following his release on licence.

Judge Farrer said: “I have no doubt you were in control of that group from the time it was set up to the time of your arrest. Initially you were the administrator but for security reasons you left and rejoined under another name. . . You told the group you wanted to be a sniper and purchased items of clothing.  If prevented you intended to ‘open the doors of Jihad’. You were a fervent supporter of Islamic State and its terrorist agenda and you were willing to use extreme violence in either this country or abroad.”

A second man, who was also part of the same chat group, pleaded guilty at a hearing in January this year. Muhammed Maroof, 19, from Birmingham, pleaded guilty to four offences of distributing terrorist material. He was sentenced to four years and ten months earlier this year.