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A teenage Satanist and far-right extremist received a suspended sentence after posting bomb-making manuals on neo-Nazi forums and downloading indecent images of children.
Harry Vaughan, 18, an elementary school student who achieved four A * grades on his A levels, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Monday after admitting 14 crimes of terrorism and two image crimes of child abuse. They gave him two years of detention suspended for two years.
Vaughan was arrested by police in June of last year following an investigation on an online forum called Fascist Forge.
Police discovered that the teenager, from southwest London, had been concealing his identity behind numerous aliases and bragging about school shootings, sharing explosives manuals and neo-Nazi propaganda online, expressing homophobic opinions and downloading indecent images of underage children.
Digital forensic specialists recovered 4,200 images and 302 files from Vaughan’s devices, including a far-right terrorist book and documents related to Satanism, neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism.
Police also discovered graphics encouraging acts of terrorism on behalf of the outlawed Sonnenkrieg Division and footage from the 2019 Christchurch Mosque massacre.
Several homemade posters were found in the bedroom of the teenager, who was attending Tiffin Primary School in Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey.
One featured far-right Norwegian killer Anders Breivik and the words “all girls love a mass murderer” and “it’s okay to be a Nazi.”
Richard Smith, the head of the Met’s counterterrorism command, said the case showed that any young man can be susceptible to radicalization.
He said: “Harry Vaughan is a smart young man… yet online, he was an enthusiastic participant in right-wing terrorist forums.
“His case illustrates that it is possible for any young person to be susceptible to radicalization, so today I want to appeal to everyone to be as attentive as possible to the signs that a young loved one may be in trouble.”
In a pre-sentencing report, Vaughan noted that no “significant political”, “racist or homophobic” views were expressed during his upbringing. The teenager’s father, who was at court, is a clerk in the House of Lords and his mother is a teacher.
The judge took into account the young age of the defendant and his diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. He also acknowledged a letter from Vaughan’s parents, who are committed to helping him “change for the better.”
His extremist views, which he now claims to have renounced, were said to be “driven by use of the Internet.”
Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds said: “The footage unequivocally demonstrates that Vaughan had an ingrained far-right and racist mentality, as well as an interest in explosives, firearms and violence in general.”
Vaughan’s attorney, Naeem Mian QC, told the Old Bailey that a “toxic cocktail of factors” had led the defendant to “disappear down an Internet rabbit hole” in a “very, very dark place.”
