Essex teenager Matthew King who planned terror attack targeting police and military jailed for at least six years
A teenager from Essex has been sentenced to at least six years in prison after admitting he was planning a terror attack on the police and military.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC said Matthew King, 19, from Wickford, was a danger to the public.
Sentencing him to life, Judge Lucraft said King must serve at least six years before he can be considered for parole.
King’s mother, who reported her own son to the authorities because of her concerns about his behaviour, received praise from the judge during his sentencing remarks today.
Judge Mark Lucraft
King was arrested by the Metropolitan Police on 18 May last year, and charged with the preparation of terrorist acts.
He had told an online girlfriend about his desire to torture and kill an American or British soldier and had also posted an image of a police officer with the caption: “Target acquired.”
He had been scoping out targets and had previously talked about wanting to carry out a “mass casualty attack” on the public.
Detectives believe King had selected his target and was preparing to carry out an attack when they arrested him.
Judge Lucraft found King was a dangerous offender and carried a risk of future harm to the public, despite claims by his barrister the defendant was on the path to deradicalisation.
‘She had concerns for her son’
The court heard in his early teens King “dabbled with drugs” and was expelled from school after becoming aggressive, eventually leaving education entirely at the age of 16.
Around 2020, he became interested in Islam, began to attend mosques and watched Muslim videos on YouTube.
By May 2021, his family noticed he had become more extreme and his mother became concerned he was watching material online promoting hatred, Mr Jarvis said.
In 2022, police were alerted by calls to the Anti-Terrorist Hotline and local police from members of the public, telling them that King was becoming “increasingly extreme and unstable”.
King’s mother also reported him to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme.
Judge Lucraft praised King’s mother, saying: “She took the very bold step of alerting Prevent when she had concerns for her son.
“That cannot have been an easy thing to do in the first place and in my view she absolutely the right thing.”
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Matthew King was sentenced to life with a minimum of 6 years in prison
The calls to police were made between 14 and 18 April last year, after King shared a video on a WhatsApp group, according to prosecutors.
The video shared on 13 April featured a still image of a man holding a knife and the words on the screen: “Those who said that there is no jihad and no battle. They are lying! Our jihad will continue until the Day of Judgment!
“Now the battle has begun. So take out your sword, O youth, and destroy the kufr [infidels].”
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said he believed an attack was “imminent” when they arrested King, four weeks later.
Mr Murphy said King was a “committed, self-initiated terrorist,” who “had radicalised himself in his room using the internet”.
King talked of killing British soldier and ‘non-Muslims’
A written plea document from the defence said King “actively desired” to travel to IS-controlled areas of Syria to join their activities, seeking advice on how to get there and using a WhatsApp group to discuss plans.
He had also made videos expressing his admiration for the terror group and said if his plan to go to Syria was disrupted, he would carry out an attack in the UK.
King also set up an account with the online store Knife Warehouse in an effort to buy a blade in December 2021, and in March 2022, bought “tactical” gloves and goggles from an army surplus store.
He had been spending a great deal of time online during the COVID-19 lockdown, using his phone to view a large number of extremist videos, including IS propaganda showing suicide bombers and mass executions.
‘Special ops’ clothing King purchased. Pics: Met Police
In conversations on Snapchat with a female friend, later recovered from his phone, King discussed his desire to travel to Syria to take part in violent jihad and talked about becoming a martyr, on a number of occasions.
King told the girl that he was training for jihad and wanted to kill people.
In one particularly graphic exchange, he talked about his desire to torture and kill an American or British soldier.
He also joined an online chat group, in which he discussed subjects including terrorist financing and different routes to travel out to Syria.
At one point, he updated his WhatsApp status to “Kill non-Muslims, wherever you see them”.
On two occasions between March and May 2022, King took a photograph of police officers in Stratford, east London, and on a third occasion, filmed the side entrance of Stratford Police Station as he walked past.
Last May he also made a short film of an army barracks in Stratford.
CCTV stills taken of King outside an army Barracks in east London. Pics: Met Police
‘I’m not extreme anymore’
Speaking on King’s behalf at the Old Bailey, the defence said King was “immature” and the likelihood of an act of terrorism was “remote”.
His barrister Hossein Zahir KC argued that despite such incidents of “offensive and abusive” behaviour, King was “slowly and steadily” disengaging from the excesses of extremism.
In a prison phone call, King told his mother: “I’m not extreme anymore.”
But police said King had a “firm intention and desire to carry out a terrorist attack” and had discussed committing indiscriminate attacks on the public, as well as showing a “sinister interest” in police officers and army personnel.
Mr Murphy said officers were struck by how quickly he went from developing extremist views to being almost ready to launch a terrorist attack.
Despite pleading guilty to preparing acts of terrorism, King was “somebody who doesn’t demonstrate any kind of remorse or regret for their behaviour or their activity”, Mr Murphy added.
He said the rise in young boys and men being investigated as counter-terrorism threats is “particularly concerning”.
A woman who is under police investigation after assisting the suicide of her husband at Dignitas in Switzerland has told Sky News she has no regrets.
Louise Shackleton has spoken publicly for the first time since her husband’s death in December, as parliament prepares to vote again on legislation to introduce assisted dying in England and Wales.
Mrs Shackleton surrendered herself to police after returning from Switzerland having seen her husband Anthony die. He had been suffering with motor neurone disease for six years.
“I have committed a crime, which I have admitted to, of assisting him by simply pushing him on to a plane and being with him, which I don’t regret for one moment. He was my husband and I loved him,” she said.
“We talked at length over two years about this. What he said to me on many occasions is ‘look at my options, look at what my options are. I can either go there and I can die peacefully, with grace, without pain, without suffering or I could be laid in a bed not being able to move, not even being able to look at anything unless you move my head’.
“He didn’t have options. What he wanted was nothing more than a good death.”
The law in the UK prohibits people from assisting in the suicide of others, but prosecutions have been rare.
Louise Shackleton has spoken publicly for the first time since her husband Anthony’s death
In a statement, a North Yorkshire Police spokesman told Sky News: “The investigation is ongoing. There is nothing further to add at this stage.”
The next vote on the assisted dying bill for England and Wales has been delayed by three weeks to give MPs time to consider amendments.
The legislation would permit a person who is terminally ill with less than six months to live to legally end their life after approval by two doctors and an expert panel.
‘He was at total peace with his decision’
Mrs Shackleton says she saw her husband “physically and mentally” relax once on the flight to Switzerland.
She said: “We had the most wonderful four days.
“He was laughing. He was at total peace with his decision.
“It was in those four days that I realised that he wanted the peaceful death more than he wanted to suffer and stay with me, which was hard, but that’s how resolute he was in having this peace.
“I was his wife, we’d been together 25 years, we’d known each other since we were 18. I couldn’t do anything else but help him.”
‘We need to safeguard people’
She said the hardest part of the journey came after her husband’s death.
“There was this panic and this fear that I was leaving him,” she said. “That was a horrific experience.
“If the law had changed in this country, I would have been with family, family would have been with us, family would’ve been with him. But as it was, that couldn’t happen.”
Opponents to the assisted dying bill have raised concerns about the safety of vulnerable people and the risk of coercion and a change in attitudes toward the elderly, seriously ill and disabled.
They say improvements to palliative care should be a priority.
“I think that we need to safeguard people,” said Mrs Shackleton. “I think that sometimes we need to suffer other people’s choices, and when I mean suffer I mean we have to acknowledge that whilst we’re not comfortable with those, that we need to respect other people, other people wishes.”
Read more:
Assisted dying: What is in the legislation?
Debate over assisted dying delayed
Anthony, who died aged 59, was a furniture restorer who had earned worldwide recognition for making rocking horses.
“I think the measure of the man is that nobody has ever said a bad word about him in the whole of his life because he was just so caring and giving,” his widow said.
‘This is about a dying person’s choice’
She said she had chosen to speak publicly because of a promise she had made him.
“I felt that my husband’s journey shouldn’t be in vain. We discussed this on our last day and my husband made me promise to tell his story.
“He told me to fight and the simple thing that I’m fighting for is people to have the choice.
“This is about a dying person’s choice to either follow their journey through with disease or to die peacefully when they want to, on their terms, and have a good death. It’s that simple.”
UK
Feminists ‘feel braver about speaking out’ after gender ruling – but critics say it ‘stokes culture war’
A former Labour MP who quit the party over Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership has welcomed the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman as a “victory for feminists”.
Rosie Duffield, now the independent MP for Canterbury, said the judgment helped resolve the “lack of clarity” that has existed in the politics around the issue “for years”.
She was speaking to Ali Fortescue on the Politics Hub on the same day the UK’s highest court delivered its verdict on one of the most contentious debates in politics.
Politics latest: MPs respond to Supreme Court ruling on gender
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How do you define a woman in law?
The judges were asked to rule on how “sex” is defined in the 2010 Equality Act – whether that means biological sex or “certificated” sex, as legally defined by the 2004 Gender Recognition Act.
Their unanimous decision was that the definition of a “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
Asked what she made about comments by fellow independent MP John McDonnell – who said the court “failed to hear the voice of a single trans person” and that the decision “lacked humanity and fairness” as a result, she said: “This ruling doesn’t affect trans people in the slightest.
“It’s about women’s rights – women’s rights to single sex spaces, women’s rights, not to be discriminated against.
“It literally doesn’t change a single thing for trans rights and that lack of understanding from a senior politician about the law is a bit worrying, actually.”
However, Maggie Chapman, a Scottish Green MSP, disagreed with Ms Duffield and said she was “concerned” about the impact the ruling would have on trans people “and for the services and facilities they have been using and have had access to for decades now”.
Susan Smith and Marion Calder, directors of For Women Scotland celebrate after the ruling. Pic: Reuters
“One of the grave concerns that we have with this ruling is that it will embolden people to challenge trans people who have every right to access services,” she said.
“We know that over the last few years… their [trans people’s] lives have become increasingly difficult, they have been blocked from accessing services they need.”
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‘Today’s ruling only stokes the culture war further’
Delivering the ruling at the London court on Wednesday, Lord Hodge said: “But we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.
Campaigners celebrate outside the Supreme Court. Pic: PA
“The Equality Act 2010 gives transgender people protection, not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment in substance in their acquired gender.
“This is the application of the principle of discrimination by association. Those statutory protections are available to transgender people, whether or not they possess a gender recognition certificate.”
Read more:
Supreme Court decision has immediate real-world consequences
Prisons across England and Wales now 98.9% full
Asked whether she believed the judgment could “draw a line” under the culture war, Ms Chapman told Fortescue: “Today’s judgment only stokes that culture war further.”
And she said that while Lord Hodge was correct to say there were protections in law for trans people in the 2020 Equality Act, the judgment “doesn’t prevent things happening”.
“It may offer protections once bad things have happened, once harassment, once discrimination, once bigotry, once assaults have happened,” she said.
She also warned some groups “aren’t going to be satisfied with today’s ruling”.
“We know that there are individuals and there are groups who actually want to roll back even further – they want to get rid of the Gender Recognition Act from 2004,” she said.
“I think today’s ruling just emboldens those views.”
Arsenal have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League after a dramatic victory over holders Real Madrid in Spain.
The north London side, who became the first English team to win twice at the Bernabeu following their triumph there 19 years ago, will face Paris Saint-Germain in the last four after the French side beat Aston Villa on Tuesday.
It is the third time the Gunners have made it through to the semis of the top club football tournament in Europe, and the first since 2009.
Arsenal went into the second leg of their quarter-final clash on Wednesday with a 3-0 lead.
Backed by a raucous home crowd, Madrid tried to get off to a strong start and Kylian Mbappe scored after two minutes. However, the goal was disallowed for a clear offside.
Arsenal had the chance to go ahead in the 13th minute but winger Bukayo Saka missed a penalty.
The Spanish hosts were awarded a penalty of their own about 10 minutes later when Mbappe stumbled under pressure from Declan Rice in the box – but the decision was overturned by VAR.
Saka atoned for his tepid penalty as he chipped the ball past Madrid’s keeper Thibaut Courtois when put through on goal by auxiliary striker Mikel Merino in the 65th minute.
But Arsenal were pegged back just two minutes later as Vinicius Junior caught William Saliba dawdling on the ball and fired Real Madrid level.
Arsenal’s resolute defending kept the home side at bay until Gabriel Martinelli made a late break through the home side’s defence to put his side 2-1 ahead three minutes into injury time, as the Gunners made it 5-1 on aggregate.
(L-R) Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Mikel Merino celebrate after the defeat against Real Madrid. Pic: AP
‘We knew we were going to win’, says Rice
Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has insisted his team are intent on winning the Champions League after their victory in Madrid.
Speaking to TNT Sport, Rice, who was named player of the match, said: “It’s such a special night, a historic one for the club. We have the objective of playing the best and winning the competition.
“We had so much belief and confidence from that first leg and came here to win the game. We knew we were going to suffer but we knew we were going to win. We had it in our minds, then we did it [in] real life. What a night.
“I knew when I signed, this club was on an upward trajectory. It’s been tough in the Premier League but in this competition we’ve done amazingly well.
“It’s PSG next, who are an amazing team.”
‘We have to be very proud of ourselves’, says Arteta
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told TNT Sport: “One of the best nights in my football career.
“We played against a team with the biggest history.
“To be able to win the tie in the manner we have done, I think we have to be very proud of ourselves.”
He added: “The history we have in this competition is so short. The third time in our history of what we have just done and we have to build on that. All this experience is going to help us, for sure.”
Real Madrid were seeking their third Champions League title in four seasons.
Mbappe twisted ankle
Their forward Mbappe twisted his right ankle during the game and was jeered by part of the crowd when his substitution was announced after a lacklustre performance.
The French star, who is still looking for his first Champions League title, was replaced by Brahim Diaz in the 75th minute following his injury. He was able to walk off the pitch by himself, but was limping slightly.
The other semi-final will be between Barcelona and Inter Milan.
The first legs are set to be played on 29 and 30 April, with the second legs on 6 and 7 May.
The final will be on 31 May.
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