A TEENAGER told a teacher he had created a ‘beheading list’ of staff before organising an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack on Anzac Day in Australia, a court heard.

The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons but who was schooled in Blackburn and Burnley, told staff he was going to slit their throats and decapitate them.

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In one class he was reported to have said to a teacher: “You are on my beheading list,” and said the teacher was now on the list above a colleague.

Manchester Crown Court heard yesterday how the defendant, aged 14 at the time, told a teaching assistant that he wanted to ‘stab him in the neck with his pencil and kill him like halal’.

When asked what he meant, the court was told, the defendant, of Blackburn, said that he wanted to slit his throat and watch him bleed to death.

The defendant, who came within days of successfully plotting an Anzac Day parade ‘massacre’ in Australia, was excluded from schools for abusive and disobedient behaviour after his parents separated. He was later found to have a catalogue of IS-related photographs and videos on his phone.

Prosecuting, Paul Greaney QC said: “And so, putting his behaviour at school together with his activities over the internet, a clear picture emerges of a young person who was, by March, thoroughly and dangerously radicalised and committed to IS and the idea of violent jihad and who was, moreover, wired into the IS network.”

The youth pleaded guilty in July to inciting terrorism overseas.

Over the course of nine days in March he took on the role of ‘organiser and adviser’ to an alleged Australian jihadist named Sevdet Besim to murder police officers by beheading at the remembrance event, the court was told. Posing as an older person with a 14-year-old son, the defendant set about confirming the details of the attack that Besim would carry out which included running over a police officer, beheading them and then attacking other officers.

His contact with Besim, via a smartphone app, was instigated by a well-known IS recruiter and propagandist named Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, himself an Australian, who has promoted the idea of terrorist attacks in his homeland, said the crown.

Mr Greaney said: “In the event, fortunately, the authorities here and in Australia intervened and a plot that would in all probability have resulted in a number of deaths was thwarted.”

The teenager had earlier been referred to Channel, part of the Government’s Prevent counter-extremism programme, and told staff there that he knew he was going to be killed or go to jail.

He said he blamed the Channel process for radicalising him after saying it had prevented him going to the school of his choice.

Mr Greaney said: “He said that he had a new identity on the internet and was in contact with many adults through that means, something that in the event proved to be quite true.”

The boy was arrested at his home on March 25 on suspicion of making threats to kill.

The prosecutor said: “The screensaver for the handset of the Samsung Galaxy was the flag of IS. The handset also contained a video showing the events immediately preceding a beheading by members of Boko Haram along with photographs of other beheadings, including by Jihadi John, to whom (the defendant) had referred in discussions at school.

“IS propaganda was found on the handset, including editions of a magazine, one of which contained excerpts from a speech by an IS spokesman calling for lone wolf attacks in home countries.

“There were hundreds of photographs showing IS fighters, prominent individuals associated with IS, dead Syrians and calls to arms.”

The prosecutor said: “(The boy) had also used the handset to search for news items relating to IS and associated issues. In addition, he had searched for information about high explosives and associated topics. In other words, the handset revealed the clearest evidence of (his) mindset and of his religious and political views.”

The court was told the defendant had since told a psychiatrist in custody that he was convinced that if the police had not disrupted his activities ‘a massacre would have occurred’ and in this way he thought he ‘would become notorious’.

The teenager apparently first made contact with al-Cambodi through the internet in early January.

Discussions took place about travelling to Syria, the routes that might be used and possible support from al-Cambodi, who treated the defendant as ‘a little brother’, the court was told.

The court heard the defendant had told Channel he was in touch with a UK-based radical preacher named Abu Haleema.

When the teenager was bailed as inquiries continued, he used a Twitter account to alert other extremists to the fact that he had been arrested including Haleema, it was said.

Examination of his phone showed that in March he also took part in a group chat online with a known UK-based supporter of IS and associate of Haleema.

The defendant was also said to have been in contact with a significant IS supporter in Canada in which the pair discussed their hatred of Jews and Shias.

He messaged a man in France who indicated his intention to travel to Syria.

The teenager, dressed in a grey shirt, black trousers and a black and white tie, now 15, sat watching the proceedings from within the courtroom, flanked by his mum and other family members.

His mother began crying when the court discussed possible sentencing terms.

James Pickup QC, defending, said the boy should not now be considered dangerous for purposes of sentencing.

The barrister said the boy started accessing IS propaganda when he got a smartphone and told the court that he found an online jihadist community which ‘filled a void’ caused by problems he was having at school and at home as well as his degenerative eye condition.

He said: “He wasn’t rejected. He was welcomed.”

Mr Pickup said within two weeks of setting up a Twitter account he had 24,000 followers as he constructed a fantasy image of himself. He set up a succession of accounts after the company shut down each profile in turn. He quickly became ‘a celebrity within the jihadi Twitter community.’ Mr Pickup said the defendant had made considerable progress at the specialist unit where he was being held.

He told the judge: “He accepts his crimes were barbaric, immoral and wholly wrong.”

The barrister said that the ‘void that was filled by the extremist propaganda of IS no longer exists’.

He said this was now filled by positive influences, including the support of his parents and wider family.