North East man jailed for police station terror plot

Luke Skelton researched bombmaking techniques while posting a number of vile messages on social media platforms when he became wrapped up in far-right ideology.

Throughout the two-week trial, jurors heard how the North East man had posted his racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic views while searching for recipes to create his own explosives and incendiary devices.

The 20-year-old was found guilty of preparing to commit acts of terrorism following a trial at Teesside Crown Court.

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Judge Paul Watson KC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, passed a five-year sentence – four in custody with an extended licence period of one year for the defendant's terror plot.

“You travelled more than ten miles from your home to Newcastle city centre to carry out reconnaissance and observations,” he said.

“Your objective was to provoke what you saw as a coming race war. This was no spur-of-the-moment conduct; you had been building up to it since you first wedded yourself to extreme right-wing ideology.”

Luke Skelton (Image: Counter Terrorism Police)

The offence, spanning the period between October 2020 and 2021, took place in the student’s home town of Washington while he was a student at Gateshead College.

The then-teenager carried out a ‘hostile reconnaissance’ of Forth Banks police station in Newcastle - taking photographs of the building and checking out the location of CCTV cameras in the vicinity.

Skelton had researched the recipe for Napalm in an attempt to make his own explosive device and a forensic search of his computer revealed searches for neo-Nazi material.

His intended target - Forth Banks police station in Newcastle

Explosives expert Lisa Dunn, who is based at the Ministry of Defence’s site at Porton Down, told jurors that the accused had gathered enough information to create a ‘viable’ explosive.

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Crispin Aylett KC, representing Skelton, urged the judge to pass a determinate sentence as his client had made no real efforts to implement his plans.

He said: “The defendant never did anything more than take couple of photographs of the police station. Even then, after he went to Newcastle and the date of his arrest, he did nothing more.

“In fact, his internet activity showed he had lost interest or simply changed his mind.”

The barrister argued that Skelton’s autism diagnosis and lower-than-average IQ also meant he was more likely to be attracted to online radicalisation due to his isolation and the Covid outbreak exasperated his sense of loneliness.