Life sentence for teen terrorist who plotted attack on police and soldiers

A teenager who admitted he was planning a terror attack on the police and military was jailed for at least six years.

Matthew King, 19, was just hours away from carrying out his plot when he was arrested after a tip-off from his mother in May 2022.

He converted to extreme Islamism during lockdown at his family home in Wickford, Essex.

Graphic online videos convinced him he should kill or torture a British soldier either in the UK or abroad.

His phone also showed he had joined an online chat group where he discussed terrorist funding and travel routes to Syria.

He had changed his WhatsApp status to "kill non-Muslims" and recorded himself rapping to his own lyrics about fellow terrorists in Belmarsh Prison and detonating a bomb, officers found.

In 2022, in the weeks before his arrest, King began carrying out reconnaissance in Stratford, east London, making videos of the railway station, police station and magistrates' court.

He admitted the offence of preparation of terrorist attacks.

Passing sentence at the Old Bailey, the Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, told King he posed a danger to the public and as a result would serve a life sentence.

The judge said: "The risks around you, albeit as a young man, are clear and concerning."

The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-...

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