A 15-year-old teenager appeared before a Northumberland court in Britain on Thursday after he allegedly planned a terror attack, the UK’s counter-terror police announced.
The teenager was charged with engaging in conduct in preparation for committing acts of terrorism, and membership of a proscribed organization.
He pled not guilty to both charges and will appear again before the courts on March 14.
The suspect is believed to be a member of The Base, a proscribed terrorist organization as of 2021, according to the BBC.
Neo-Nazis grooming British youth
Described as a white supremacist group by the UK government, and a neo-Nazi group by the European Union, the group has become known for grooming youth.
Young prospective members of the terror group are interviewed by Rinaldo Nazzaro, the 47-year-old American founder of The Base, BBC News reported in 2020. The youth are questioned on their personal history, ethnicity, radicalization journey and experience with weapons.
The issue of American neo-Nazis grooming British youth has made headlines recently in the UK, especially after the suicide of 16-year-old.
Chesterfield Coroner's Court heard this week that Rudd ended her life in 2022 after she learned she was facing potential terror charges for saying she "wants to kill someone in the school or blow up a Jewish place of worship" and that she "does not care who she kills and nothing matters anymore," according to Sky News. The charges were dropped five months before her death after it was learned she had been groomed.
Rudd, who was groomed by American neo-Nazi Chris Cook, downloaded a bombmaking manual and scratched a swastika mark on to her forehead. She was to become the youngest person charged with terror offences in the UK.
The young girl was in the care of the state at the time of her death as she struggled with autism and self-harm.
Her mother wrote to the Home Office counter-terrorism programme Prevent in 2020 to warn them that her daughter was exhibiting a "massive dislike for certain races." She reportedly developed an obsession with Adolph Hitler and denied the Holocaust had happened.
