Boy, 15, charged with terror offences relating to extremist Islam

21 January 2025, 12:31 | Updated: 21 January 2025, 12:54

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with terror offences connected to extremist Islam.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of three counts of having a document or record of information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.

He has also been charged with three counts of encouraging terrorism, Counter Terrorism Policing South East said.

It comes just hours after the prime minister warned “terrorism has changed” following the murder of three young girls in Southport last year.

The boy, from Southampton, Hampshire, was charged on Monday and released on bail.

Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana pleads guilty on first day of trial

He will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on January 29.

Sir Keir Starmer warned today of a new breed of terrorist emerging in the UK made up of violent 'loners and misfits,' in the wake of the Southport killings.

In an address to the nation, The Prime Minister said "the whole country grieves" for the victims of the attack and that it "must be a line in the sand for Britain."

He said there must be "fundamental change" in how the country protects its children.

His comments come one day after Axel Rudakubana, 18 admitted murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport."

The names of those three girls… must be associated with a fundamental change in how Britain protects its citizens," Sir Keir said.

He said that "institutional failure ‘leaps off the page' and warned that ‘terrorism had changed’.

He said that the violence seen in the Southport attack was a new form of terrorism committed by ‘loners and misfits’

He said the perpetrators were "sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on ‘extreme violence… for its own sake.

"The predominant threat was highly organized groups with clear political intent, groups like Al Qaeda.

"That threat, of course, remains, but now alongside that, we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom accessing all manner of material, online, desperate but notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake."

The Home Secretary has announced that there will be a public inquiry into how Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana "came to be so dangerous" and why Prevent "failed to identify the terrible risk" he posed to others.

Yvette Cooper confirmed the 18-year-old had "contact with a range of different state agencies throughout his teenage years" before carrying out his "meticulously planned rampage" at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

Ms Cooper said in a statement: "He was referred three times to the Prevent programme between December 2019 and April 2021 aged 13 and 14.

"He also had contact with the police, the courts, the Youth Justice system, social services and mental health services.

"Yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed."