MI5 officers lamented lack of guidance in child terrorism cases, emails reveal

Rhianan Rudd, who was groomed by a 28-year-old American neo-Nazi, had spoken of wanting to blow up a synagogue and ‘slash throats’. Photograph: family handout/PA

MI5 officers investigating a schoolgirl who went on to kill herself after being charged with far-right terror offences had complained of a lack of guidance on handling the growing number of such cases, according to internal emails heard at an inquest.

A special evidence session in London heard that intelligence agents working on the case of Rhianan Rudd, who died at the age of 16, lamented the lack of national strategy in dealing with a proliferation of vulnerable young people holding violent far-right views.