A Sydney teenager has been jailed for at least 12 years for preparing a terrorist act, with a judge finding an attack was imminent when the boy was arrested near a Bankstown courthouse and police station in 2016.
The now 18-year-old, who was found guilty by a jury in September, has admitted he sympathised with Islamic State when he bought fixed-blade knives from a gun shop in October 2016.
However the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has continued to deny any plan to use the weapons in a terrorist attack and instead claims he wanted them for camping and hunting animals.
Justice Geoffrey Bellew on Tuesday said his denial flew in the face of overwhelming evidence when he sentenced the teenager to 16 years in prison with a non-parole period of 12 years.
“At the time of his arrest, the offender was ready, willing and able to carry out a terrorist attack,” the judge said.
He was satisfied the teenager was “an unequivocally committed terrorist” and an attack was imminent when he was arrested with an alleged co-offender at a Bankstown prayer hall on 12 October.
Police searched two backpacks which contained the knives, several data-x-items of clothing, neck gaiters and a handwritten pledge of “allegiance to the caliph”.
The judge said it was significant that the boy’s arrest came a little over a month after he downloaded an Isis magazine that mentioned Bankstown, in an article urging readers to “alleviate the pain afflicting the hearts of the Muslims by striking the kuffar in their homelands”.
“Kill them on the streets of Brunswick, Broadmeadows, Bankstown, and Bondi,” the magazine said. “Kill them at the MCG, the SCG, the Opera House and even in their backyards.”
Later, in the same month he bought the knives, the teenager downloaded another edition of the magazine that recommended using fixed-blade knives in a terrorist attack.
The judge rejected his claims of an interest in hunting and camping as “nonsensical” and “fanciful”, and did not accept that he was a naive 16-year-old whose immaturity contributed to his crime.
“In my view, the offender’s conduct belies any suggestion of naivety, immaturity or lack of intelligence,” he said.
The teenager will be 28 when he is eligible for parole in October 2028.
