Sentencing Children for Violent Extremism: Part 2

Abstract

At age 15, S. began to take an active interest in the ideology and activities of National Action, a small-scale UK-based White supremacist and homophobic neo-Nazi clustering that was officially proscribed (under TA 2000) as a terrorist organisation for stirring up hatred and glorifying violence, around 6 months after he first evidenced affiliative identity with that cause. Defying that ban he had gained the ear of its leadership and was actively involved in a plan to recruit new members, via demonstrations, banners and stickers, making considerable personal financial outlay. Arrested at age 17 (when he told the police that he had ceased subscribing to such far-right extremist ideology several months beforehand) and without a prior criminal history, he was convicted at age 19 of the offence of membership of a proscribed organisation (TA 2000 s.11, with a maximum of 10 years). Reference to the recent Guideline on Terrorism Offences (Part 1 Endnote 10 refers) indicated for Category B culpability (‘active’ (but not prominent) member of organisation), a starting point of 5 years custody and a range between 3 and 7 years. This steer needed to be modified by application of the 2017 Children and Young Persons Guideline’s view (Section 6.2, adopting the Ghafoor principle [2003] 1 Cr App R (S) 428) that the appropriate starting point for those who have meantime attained young adulthood should be the sentence likely to have been imposed on the date at which the offence is committed when the defendant was still a child/young person, namely a maximum term detention and training order (DTO) (24 months). In determining whether this might be a rare instance justifying a term above that maximum, the judge observed that S.’s objective had been