On Foreign News
A teenage Islamic State extremist has been jailed for life for plotting a terror attack on British police officers and soldiers after being radicalised online during the pandemic.
Muslim convert, Matthew King, 19 years of age, expressed a desire to kill military personnel as he prepared to stake out a British Army barracks in Stratford, east London.
His desires to launch an attack in Britain or travel to Syria to join the Islamic State were thwarted when his mother reported him to the Prevent counter-terrorism program.
Authorities were also tipped off through an anti-terrorist hotline after he posted a video on a WhatsApp group on April 13 last year.
On Friday, he was handed a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of six years in the first terrorism sentencing in England and Wales to be televised.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC praised King’s mother, saying, “She took the very bold step of alerting when she had concerns for her son.
King’s barrister told the court that more recent conversations with his supportive family showed signs that the defendant was turning away from his radical beliefs.
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