A 17-year-old in Wales was accused last month of plotting a knife attack, including one that would target fans at Oasis’ first reunion gig, The Times reports.
According to prosecutors, the teenager (who was not identified because of his age) told a counsellor last month that he planned to carry out a “Rudakubana-style attack,” referring to Axel Rudakubana, the 18-year-old who pleaded guilty to killing three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England, last summer.
The teenager allegedly told his friends about the potential plot to attack the July 4 Oasis show in Cardiff. Prosecutors said he researched his school as a potential target, too. And they claimed he kept a note on his phone with the header “places to attack,” under which he’d listed a dance school near his home.
Additionally, prosecutors said the teenager was researching how to procure a large knife online. They said he sent a photo of one on sale to a friend, asking, “Would this work?”
The suspect’s apparent desire to mimic the Southport attack extended past his comments to the counsellor. He’d apparently researched and saved images of Rudakubana, posted things on Snapchat mocking the Southport victims, and praised Rudakubana and expressed his desire to carry out a similar attack in chats with others. The suspect also allegedly saved to his phone the same al-Qaeda training manual Rudakubana had in his possession.
The suspect’s family raised concerns about the teenager’s behavior, leading to an appointment with the counsellor. One person he was chatting with on Snapchat reported him to the police, while a second police report was made after the suspect’s meeting with the counsellor.
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Despite the evidence obtained, prosecutors were ultimately unable to charge the suspect with planning to carry out a terrorist attack because he did not espouse an ideology that fit the legal definition of terrorism in the U.K. Rather, the suspect was charged with possessing a document useful for terrorism, which he has since admitted to. (Rudakubana faced a similar charge, for which he received an 18-month sentence as part of his overall 52-year prison sentence.)
A sentencing date for the suspect has yet to be announced.
