Teen planned Southport-style attacks on dance school and Oasis gig

Times

13-07-2025

A boy aged 17 planned to attack fans at the first Oasis reunion concert and carry out a Southport-style atrocity at a dance school near his home, a court has been told.
The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, allegedly researched how to obtain large knives and in a chat with a friend sent an image of one for sale online, saying: 'Would this work?'
He also told friends of a plan to attack the Oasis gig on July 4 in Cardiff, the prosecution said.
A note saved on his phone headed 'places to attack' included a dance school near his home, and that location data suggested he had been close to it a few days earlier. The teenager had also researched his own school as a potential target, the court was told.
After his family raised concerns, the teenager had an appointment with a counsellor on June 2 during which he said he planned to commit a 'Rudakubana-style attack'.
Axel Rudakubana was also 17 when he killed three girls aged six, seven and nine during a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July last year. An inquiry into the killings opened last week.
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The prosecution in the latest case told a court that no evidence was found that the youth, from near Cwmbran in South Wales, had an ideology that would fit the legal definition of terrorism.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000 the use or threat of violence must be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.
Targeting schools and misogynistic or incel (involuntary celibate) attacks or those motivated by nihilism or self-aggrandisement are not considered terrorist offences. That means that the 17-year-old suspect cannot be charged with preparing an attack.
Instead he was charged with, and has admitted, a single charge of possessing a document useful for terrorism — an offence for which Rudakubana received an 18-month sentence. In total the killer was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January.
The prosecution said the Welsh teenager's Snapchat account used a misspelt version of Rudakubana's name and he had researched the killer, saving images of him with words added that mocked Southport victims.
The boy had participated in discussions with other teenagers on Snapchat in which he praised Rudakubana and said he wanted to participate in a similar terrorist-style attack. One of the people he was talking to on Snapchat reported him to the police.
In one chat the youth said he had tried to make ricin — a poison manufactured by Rudakubana — although he later told officers this was not true.
The teenager had praised Rudakubana in his appointment with a counsellor, leading to a second report to the police.
At about 10.30am on the day of the appointment he researched knives and transferred an al-Qaeda training manual between phones.
The youth accepts that he had a copy of the same 188-page document found in the possession of the Southport killer.
He appeared at Westminster magistrates' court on June 21. The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, ordered a pre-sentence report and asked that it should consider dangerousness. She also asked for a psychiatric report on the defendant.
The press applied to have restrictions on naming the defendant lifted. The case was committed to crown court for sentence at a date to be determined.