A schoolgirl arrested with a teenage boy involved in a plot to attack police at an Anzac Day parade in Australia has admitted two terror offences.
The 16-year-old from Manchester, who cannot be named because of her age, used her school computers to look up Islamic State (IS) killer Jihadi John.
She was detained by anti-terror police in April along with Britain’s youngest convicted Islamic terrorist, a boy of 14 from Blackburn, Lancashire, who has already admitted encouraging an IS-inspired terror attack on officers at the annual Anzac parade. He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey last month to inciting terrorism abroad.
Phone data retrieved by police showed the pair exchanged more than 2,000 WhatsApp messages a day before they were arrested.
And the girl used her school’s IT system to search for information on Jihadi John, terror group IS and images of Michael Adebolajo, the killer of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013.
Neither of the teenagers can be named because of their age.
The girl, who has no previous convictions or cautions, today pleaded guilty to two offences under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Wearing a headscarf and striped cardigan, she was excused from sitting in the dock at the Youth Court at Manchester Magistrates’ Court and instead sat on a bench in front of the judge, flanked by her mother, an uncle and her solicitor.
The girl spoke only to confirm her name and age and pleaded guilty to two charges of possession of documents on or before April 3 likely to be of use to anyone preparing or committing an act of terrorism. One was a recipe for explosives .
No evidence was found that she was aware or played any part in the Anzac Day plot or any plan to harm others or incite terrorism in the UK or elsewhere, the court heard.
She was granted bail by District Judge Khalid Qureshi, who agreed to adjust her bail condition of reporting to police to allow her to attend college. She will be sentenced on October 15.
She was first held by police in April following an investigation by the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, which also led to the arrest of the 14-year-old boy.
During the investigation it was established that he and the girl had been communicating with each other, and during an eight-day period from March 18 to March 25 this year 16,260 Whatsapp messages were exchanged between them.
She was arrested on April 3, her home was searched and her Blackberry phone and a sketch pad were seized.
The girl told police the writing in her sketch pad was related to school work and a chemical recipe in the pad was in response to a Blue Peter children’s TV programme on fireworks.
Analysis of the Blackberry found instructions for producing a timed circuit, a document about DIY bomb-making and the Anarchist Cookbook 2000.
The girl also had publications by terror group IS, images of guns, knives and grenades, and photos of jihadi terror ‘heroes’ including Anwar al-Awlaki, IS leader Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Osama Bin Laden.
Images of IS symbols and flags and quotes including “I love that I should be killed in the way of Allah” and “Only Jihad No Democracy” were also found.
In addition, photos of a dead child, an execution and people about to be beheaded were also recovered.