When a 16-year-old allegedly stabbed a bishop at a western Sydney church in April, few could have predicted the ripple effects.
In the days and weeks since, several teenagers, their families and communities have been pulled into the maelstrom – and the impact is likely to be felt for years.
A week after the alleged attack, about 400 officers from New South Wales police and the Australian federal police descended on 13 homes in counter-terror raids across south-western Sydney.
After the raids, six teenagers were charged with a range of terror offences, and over the past two weeks most of them have been in court for bail applications.
The court hearings have revealed that some of the teens allegedly used messaging apps to discuss plans for a terror attack, with a 15-year-old allegedly messaging: “I want to do jihad now”. The court also heard the 15-year-old called the alleged Wakeley attacker a “mate” – and how messages appeared to increase in the days after the attack.
But the lawyer for the 15-year-old claims the messages were just “bravado”, with the teen bragging to be accepted by the group.
What the teens have been charged with
Over the course of several bail hearings at Parramatta children’s court, two distinct threads emerged, with some of the teenagers facing more serious charges than others.
Two of them – a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old – were charged with possessing or controlling violent extremist material obtained or accessed using a carriage service.
Four of them – a 15-year-old, two 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old – were charged with conspiring to engage in an act in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.
While the possession charges carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, the conspiracy charge has a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The two boys charged with possession were granted bail, but with strict conditions. They can’t leave home without parental supervision and they aren’t allowed a phone or computer with internet access.
The courts heard they were both found to have videos on their phones of violent material, including videos that showed beheadings, people being run over and content with an Islamic State watermark.
In the bail hearing for the 14-year-old, magistrate Paul Mulroney described the content found on the boy’s phone as “distressing, reprehensible and [depicting] the worst behaviour of humanity”.
The four charged with conspiracy were all denied bail, despite one being described as “quiet and respectful” and another described as an “excellent son” and a good student.
The group chat
In bail hearings for the boys charged with conspiracy, the court heard of a group chat called “Plans” where several of the alleged co-conspirators messaged each other.
Police also found messages between the alleged co-conspirators on Snapchat and TikTok. The messages included references to the purchase of weapons and a stash house, as well as numerous instances where the boys allegedly expressed desire to attack people.
In the bail hearing for the 17-year-old accused of conspiracy, the court heard he messaged the group on 20 April claiming they were “going to kill”.
“We can’t fuck around now cuz, this is serious shit, we’re going to kill,” police allege he said.
“We’re going to need patience, we’re going to be planning for a while.”
One of the 16-year-olds allegedly told a friend in messages tendered to the court that they “preferred to escape”.
“We need patience, we’re gonna be planning for a while … we prefer to escape … doesn’t mean we want to be caught or killed on purpose … but whatever happens, it’s the qadr [will] of Allah.”
In another message, in response to a friend who allegedly said they would do something “we won’t get done for”, the teenager wrote “shooting and bombs [are] too hard”, the court heard. The friend then allegedly responded: “What about stabbing?”
In refusing the bail application, magistrate Janet Wahlquist said there were “quite clearly extensive discussions captured on the chat channels that included, of course, talking about getting guns, attacks, looking at a stash house, knives and plans”.
The 15-year-old allegedly messaged the group on 20 April saying he wanted to target Jewish and Assyrian people, the court heard during his bail hearing.
“Don’t youse want to do an attack … what about jews, I am so cut, I want to do it so bad,” he allegedly wrote in one message.
In another, the court heard, he allegedly said: “I really want to do an attack too, I have so much hatred for kuffar [non-Muslims] its not funny, I want to do jihad now.”
Magistrate James Viney described the messages as “gravely concerning, deeply disturbing and very serious” and in his decision to deny bail said the messages “set up the young person as wanting to do something catastrophic”.
The links to the Wakeley attack
The court heard the 15-year-old charged with conspiracy described the 16-year-old accused of stabbing bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel as a “mate”.
He allegedly sent a message to a person after the incident at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley, saying he knew the alleged offender.
“I know the bloke who done it, he’s my mate.”
In another instance, the alleged co-conspirators discussed the Wakeley attack and its effects on their planning, with one teenager saying it had changed things.
“If he hadn’t done anything, the different story, but [things are different now] because he acted on it.”
In that same hearing, the court heard the teenager’s parents attempted to intervene and confiscated his phone in the days after the Wakeley incident after noticing the teen’s “heightened activity”.
Across the bail hearings, the prosecution painted a sense of heightened activity among the teenagers in the week after the Wakeley attack on 15 April.
A majority of the messages tendered to court by the prosecution were sent between 18 April and 21 April.
The defences
Ahmed Dib, the solicitor for the 15-year-old, argued that many of these messages, including ones that referenced the alleged Wakeley attacker, were just “bravado.”
He claimed the teenager was venting to his group and that he had a history of struggling with confidence. He said the 15-year-old was “bragging in a macho way” in order to be “accepted by the group”.
Dib said the conversations and messages tendered to court by police did not amount to “substantial planning”.
“In terms of taking proactive steps, this was a young person venting unethically, it’s deranged, but does not go to strength of prosecution case,” he told the court.
In the defence of one of the 16-year-olds, barrister Greg James KC said the boy was “an excellent son” and a good student “with whom they’ve had no issues” in the past.
James and Dib both argued that the prosecution had yet to outline what the group were allegedly planning to do.
“We don’t know, even from all the material, even from the analysis of the messages … what the terrorist act is said to be, how much has been agreed on, or what had been a matter of speculation or conjecture,” James told the court.
Separately, Dib said that there wasn’t any “substantial planning” as part of the prosecution’s case, saying that while his clients comments were “deranged” and “unethical” they didn’t amount to actual planning.
The two boys on possession of extremist material charges are due back in court in May and the four boys on charges of conspiracy to plan a terror attack are due in court in June.
