James Bruce has prosecuted a youth for terrorism offences, who was sentenced on Friday at the Central Criminal Court to a special sentence of detention of two and a half years.
The 15 year old had accessed terrorist material, acquired an arsenal of bladed weapons and crossbows, and written about his desire to kill.
James said: “This was a very involved task for the sentencing judge. Careful assessment was needed of the interplay between the sentence for the Terrorism Act offence and the type of sentences available for the other weapons offences the youth had admitted. There was also a delicate balancing exercise between the detailed psychiatric evidence as to their likelihood of committing far worse offences that they wrote and fantasised about.
These issues should always be thought through at the earliest stages and I was fortunate to be instructed by the CPS Counterterrorism Unit who had done just that.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2kzed3ykwzo
Further information
For more information from the crime team, contact clerks@36crime.co.uk
Involving James Bruce
