Scotland News
A teenager who planned to carry out mass murder in a terror attack at a mosque in Greenock has been sentenced to 10 years in custody.
The 17-year-old was arrested in January after police caught him with an airgun and aerosol cans outside Inverclyde Muslim Centre.
He had planned to set fire to the building, killing any worshippers inside.
Sentencing the teenager at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Arthurson said he had planned a “quite diabolical atrocity”.
The judge also ordered that the teenager should serve an eight-year supervision period after his release.
The mosque’s chairman previously told Scotland News he forgave the teenager and had sympathy for his family.
The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, had spoken online about how white people were at “war” and that he would “die for my land”.
He was able to plan his attack after he tricked the centre’s Imam into believing that he wanted to become a Muslim.
But police had received intelligence and arrested the boy, who was 16 at the time, outside the mosque.
He was carrying a rucksack with an airgun that he planned to use to keep worshippers inside the building after he set it on fire using aerosol cans.
The mosque’s chairman Mohammed Akhtar previously said he was shocked and saddened by what had happened and there was no place for hate crime in the community.
He said: “We hope the young person can get the support and help he needs to understand the impact of his action.
“And we have sympathy for his family for such a difficult time.”
He added: “Forgiveness and understanding each other. That’s the most important thing.
“If you understand each other, most of the problems can be solved.”
Mr Akhtar said he was very thankful for the police’s quick response – and the safety assurances officers had given to local people since the thwarted attack.
‘Inspired by Hitler and Mussolini’
The High Court in Glasgow previously heard the boy had been radicalised through social media from the age of 13.
A list of “inspirations” found in his phone included Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Brevik.
He had initially wanted to plant bombs at his school in December last year, before deciding to target the mosque.
The court heard how the boy contacted an acquaintance via the Telegram messaging app.
He wrote: “It’s good to infiltrate the target, be it a mosque or synagogue, as they think I’m one of them because I infiltrated the place.”
The boy also asked the acquaintance to live stream the burning of the mosque.
This would be shared alongside a “final” manifesto in which he stated he had planned the attack for when “the mosque will be at its fullest”.
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