THE jury has gone out in the trial of a teenage far-right extremist accused of planning to blow up a police station to start a race war.
Luke Skelton took photographs of a city centre police station and CCTV cameras on a nearby hotel during an alleged ‘hostile reconnaissance’ of Newcastle.
The 18-year-old accepted he had taken the images found on his phone but maintained it was all part of an ‘ego boosting fantasy’ while he was giving evidence at Teesside Crown Court.
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The autistic teenager travelled to Newcastle from his Washington home to photograph one of the city’s police stations as well as creating his own ‘political manifesto’ supporting white supremacist theories.
Jurors heard how he took to online social media networks to share his race hate and downloaded videos of other terrorist attacks including one of Anders Breivik, a far-right terrorist who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011.
Skelton, of Oxclose, Washington, denies a charge of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.
The trial continues.
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