10 years jail for Australian teen over foiled beheading plot
The teen masterminded a plan to attack Anzac Day commemorations in Melbourne last year
A teenager who plotted to run down and behead a police officer in an Anzac Day terrorist attack in Australia after being “corrupted by lunatic clerics” was on Monday sentenced to 10 years in jail.
The Victorian Supreme Court had previously heard that Besim discussed the plot in encrypted messages with a British boy, who was 14 at the time.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, masterminded the foiled plot from his bedroom in Lancashire, northern England and was jailed for five years last October.
It’s unfathomable an 18-year-old boy planned to kill a law enforcement officer, to crash into him with a car and then behead him with a knife
Justice Michael Croucher said Besim’s proposed “putrid act” was aimed at advancing violent jihad, intimidating the government and striking fear into the wider community.
“To the vast majority of the community, it’s unfathomable an 18-year-old boy planned to kill a law enforcement officer, to crash into him with a car and then behead him with a knife,” Croucher said.