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A neo-Nazi teenager who gave advice to international extremists on how to make improvised firearms after becoming “obsessed” with mass shootings has been jailed.
17-year-old Paul Dunleavy may be named for the first time after a judge lifted an information restriction that prevented his identity from being made public.
He was jailed for five and a half years for planning acts of terrorism by investigating how to turn a blank pistol into a real weapon and providing “advice and encouragement” to others online.
In an online test to join the organization, he wrote that the Jewish people “must be eradicated,” called fascism “the quest to restore the natural order” and said he wanted to “go out and provoke” a race war.
Dunleavy later told an undercover police officer: “I’m arming myself and getting fit. I urge everyone to do the same. “
FKD was outlawed by the British government in July, after police warned that the far-right posed the fastest-growing terrorist threat to the UK.
Judge Paul Farrer QC said the group “advocated accelerating what they saw as an inevitable race war through the use of violence, including lone wolf attacks.”
“Despite knowing the nature of this group and its members, he offered encouragement and practical advice on how to obtain or create a firearm that works,” he told Dunleavy at a sentencing hearing on Friday.
“On August 10, 2019, he left the British version of the FKD chat group and informed the founder that he was deleting his online presence while taking off his own real-life operations.”
The judge said many of the teenager’s claims were “bravado and exaggeration” to increase his status in online chats, but added: “I have no doubt that you did harbor the intention of committing an act of terror at some point in time. the future. “
Paul Dunleavy performing a Hitler salute and wearing a combat uniform
(West Midlands Police)
Dunleavy’s own preparations were in an early stage and “inept,” the court heard, but he was also knowingly inciting violent-minded individuals, including three who have been convicted of terrorist offenses in other countries.
Then, at age 16, he had tried making parts for a gun and collected various knives, a compressed air rifle, an airsoft pistol, masks, targets, drawings, and notes on gun modifications from his bedroom.
A notebook containing swastikas and details of the lone wolf attacks was seized, as well as a mock logo depicting a far-right group that wanted to form.
Dunleavy also had a wealth of material online, including detailed instructions on how to make improvised firearms and footage from numerous shootings, including far-right attacks in Christchurch, El Paso and Norway.
Judge Farrer said Dunleavy’s autism spectrum disorder contributed to an “obsessive interest in firearms” and that he experienced “depression, anxiety and feelings of social isolation.”
He said the teenager had “retired to an online world where he was searching and reading far-right literature and adopting radical views.”
A probation report described Dunleavy as “a confused, isolated teenager with a low sense of worth and self-worth, desperate to be recognized.”
He was sentenced to five and a half years in detention for the preparation of terrorist acts, and two consecutive years for each of the nine charges of collecting terrorist information.
A selfie taken by Paul Dunleavy showing him making a hand gesture associated with the far right.
(West Midlands Police)
Investigators did not identify a target for any potential attack, but said they pounced on the Dunleavy for fear it could create a live firearm.
When interviewed by police two weeks after his arrest, the teen admitted talking to neo-Nazis online and discussing firearms manufacturing, but said talking about attacks was “all fantasy.”
Dunleavy rated himself a nine to 10 on the “complete Nazi Hitler” scale, but later said he had “existed in an echo chamber” of far-right chat rooms.
Like numerous young neo-Nazis recently charged with terrorist crimes in Britain, the boy is believed to be radicalized online and read writings known as Siege by a prolific American extremist.
The head of the West Midlands Counterterrorism Unit told The Independent that Dunleavy had never been referred to the Prevent program against extremism.
Detective Superintendent Kenny Bell said police believe he became radicalized over a period of months, adding: “It’s very difficult to say when you started having these views.
“There is nothing obvious that we have seen in school or in the environment where people say ‘oh, that happened here’ and that happened there.
“Even from the circumstances of his family, there is nothing clearly obvious why he has decided to adopt these views. We have not been able to identify a cause or a turning point, or who or what caused him to become radicalized and hold such extreme views. We just don’t know. “
