Child Accused of Terrorism - Community Resolution

Case study summary

Our client was a 14-year-old boy who had been accused of possessing terrorist materials, and encouraging terrorism. We persuaded the police that our client was clearly an impressionable young boy, who posed no real risk and that it was not in the public interest to charge him.

Case study

We were approached by a school boy and his family who were terrified after they had been contacted by counter-terrorism police and asked to attend an interview under caution. They contacted us after viewing our website.

Our lawyers attended the police station with our young client and his family. The police were building the case against our client based on phone evidence. He had been present in social messaging groups with people who had been convicted of serious terrorism offences and he had sent messages supporting illegal organisations.

He had then formed social messaging groups with his school friends and sent terrorist propaganda, including material that it is illegal to possess, to his young friends.

Our client explained that one summer he had gone down a ‘rabbit hole’ on the internet and had developed a fascination with this material. Whilst he did not support the values of these illegal organisations, he accepted that he had got in too far and this now was a problem.

We negotiated with the police and we convinced them to see this case for what it was. This was a young boy who was at risk of getting pulled further into these groups and he had an interest, which was clearly a problem. That said, he was not past the point of no return and had shown insight and recognition of his problem. Eventually, the police agreed that our client could take part on courses aimed at preventing him being indoctrinated by these groups and they agreed not to prosecute him.

Our client was very relived. A conviction for a terrorism act offence could have had lifelong consequences for him. He is able to carry with his education and he getting the support he needs to address the underlying issues which led to his offending.