Australia gay club shooting
A teenage extremist from Derbyshire inspired the suspect accused of killing five people and wounding 17 others in a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in the US, a judge has been told. The teenager, who went by the name of BookAnon online, produced videos that called for an armed uprising and celebrated white supremacist murderers including Anders Breivik.
The judge, Patrick Field KC, was told at a sentencing hearing on Thursday that the material had also been watched by Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, the suspect accused of a deadly nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs last November. Harris is facing 12 years in prison and possible extradition to the US after being convicted of five terrorism offences relating to extreme rightwing videos he uploaded to the internet.
He was also found guilty of possessing a 3D printer, which he tried to use to make parts of a firearm.
UK far-right teenager inspired US gay nightclub shooting suspect, judge told
Harris will be sentenced on Friday. He was arrested two days later after an undercover sting at a motorway service station. Field was told that Harris, who was born in London, is believed to have dropped out of school at the age of seven and was sent to live with his grandfather in Glossop.
By the age of 18 he had convictions for common assault, criminal damage, possession of indecent images of children and racially aggravated damage of a memorial in Manchester to George Floyd, a black man whose murder by a US police officer sparked street protests in the US and UK. He said the teenager had been exposed to white supremacist material online from the age of 11 and was spending as much as 14 hours a day online.
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