A teenager from Essex who plotted an Islamist terror attack on police officers or UK soldiers and boasted about his murderous plans on SnapChat has been jailed for life.
Matthew King, 19, carried out surveillance at a police station, train station, and magistrates court in Stratford, east London, as well as a British Army barracks.
The teenager – a convert to Islam from Christianity - posted an image of four police officers outside the courthouse to SnapChat, with the chilling caption: “Target Acquired”.
King made searches online for terrorist attacks in London Bridge, Manchester, and Streatham, and described Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden as a “great man”, the court heard.
In online conversations with a young woman who he wanted to marry, King fantasised about killing and torturing UK and US Marines, repeatedly stated his desire for “jihad”, and told her: “I just want to kill people”.
He was reported to the Prevent counter terrorism programme by his own mother over fears of radicalisation, and raised concerns at his local mosque over extremist comments.
King has admitted plotting terrorist acts, either by travelling to Syria to join ISIS or carrying out an attack in the UK.
At the Old Bailey on Friday, he was sentenced by Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, to life in prison with a minimum term of six years.
“The risks around you, albeit as a young man, are clear and concerning”, he said.
“The way you say some things to professionals and other things to others means there’s no clear picture of when this risk may abate.”
He said King was more likely to carry out an attack in the UK than join ISIS in Syria, as that would be an easier aim to achieve.
The judge also praised King’s mother for the “bold step” of alerting Prevent: “She did exactly the right thing, it’s obvious why she did so, because of concerns she had about her son.”
While awaiting sentence, King was reported by prison authorities for threatening to “behead the imam” when his cell door was mistakenly not opened.
His barrister Hossein Zahir KC called it a "throwaway remark” that was treated by prison authorities as abusive rather than a genuine threat.
The court also heard that King attracted the nickname “the bomber” in prison, and he had issued threats to attack, kill, and chop up prison guards.
The court heard King was rapidly self-radicalised through online extremist material, and he first plotted to travel to Syria to join ISIS before turning his attention to a terror attack on UK soil.
Prosecutor Paul Jarvis said King had penned a song revealing his violent ambitions, including the lyrics: “I sneak round Dere wid a homemade bomb. Press number 1 on the Nokia phone and I watch that ting detonate. Smile on my face no one will escape when they meeting there fate.”
He had made searches online for “Isis knife tactical training”, the court heard, as well as the attackers at London Bridge terrorist Karim Butt and Fishmongers Hall attacker Usman Khan.
Mr Jarvis detailed footage from King’s mobile phone “recording himself waiting to cross the road close to Stratford magistrates court.
“He also captured four uniformed officers standing outside the court building.
“On the footage, Mr King then crossed the road and walked east bound, past the officers in the direction of The Broadway. He turned his head to the left and away from the officers as he walked past them.
“Mr King later posted an image of the officers to Snapchat with the caption ‘Target Acquired’.”
In other pieces of footage from spring 2022, King videoed a police officer at Stratford station and took footage of the location of CCTV cameras, and filmed himself walking past Stratford police station noting the entrance and exit used by officers.
Another clip made on the same day had the lyrics “Terrorise the kuffar”, the court was told.
Snapchat conversations with the woman – referred to in court as Miss A – revealed that she had encouraged his extremism and promised to marry him.
“Throughout the chat, Miss A encouraged Mr King”, said the prosecutor.
“She reminded him of her feelings for him in various ways. For example, she wrote ‘I don’t wanna look at other men’ after telling him he will be her future husband.
“Mr King replied to her: ‘I guess jihadi love is powerful’ and ‘I just want to kill people’.
“Miss A continued with a string of messages fully supporting the idea of murdering a member of the army: ‘Chop it off. Then shove it down his throat. Slit open... his neck... No that’s too easy. Leave the neck till last. Put a slut (slit) and make his ass crack all the way down. ... Take the tongue of (off) ... and shove it in the back side in front of him... Chop his penis up and shove it down his throat and then behead him... I’m not finished... Cut up his body parts...play puzzles with it. We shall teach our children science of the human body. Done’.”
Mr Jarvis said King - who set his WhatsApp status as “kill the non-Muslims” - then sent Miss A a voice message including “details of how he would get two Marines in a room together and get them to rape each other.
“The message included references to shooting them in the head, cutting off their fingers, gouging out their eyes and then cutting off their cords, putting a hot piece of coal on their tongue and cutting off their ears, then cutting off the tip of their nose, mutilating their toes and fingers, cutting off their feet one by one - right foot followed by left hand and vice versa - then the whole arms followed by their beheading after which he said he will hold their head up and take a picture.”
When he was arrested at the family home in Wickford, Essex, police found King had bought camouflage clothes and military-style combat glasses and gloves.
The court heard he had been banished from a mosque in Chelmsford for uploading an image to WhatsApp of a man holding a knife, referring to “jihad” and the “day of judgment”.
“He gave the impression that he wanted to go to Syria to fight but at the same time Mr King said he did not subscribe to the views of ISIS”, said Mr Jarvis.
“On a different occasion, Mr King told someone at the mosque that they should all be doing jihad. He described Osama Bin Laden as a great man.”
The court heard King turned aggressive after he “dabbled in drugs” as a younger teenager and he was expelled from his secondary school. He left education at the age of 16 and would regularly return home while high on cannabis, but his mother reported a marked change in his behaviour in 2020.
He talked of “finding faith” and began to wear traditional Islamic clothing, eating only Halal food and learning Arabic. But he also began displaying worrying behaviour, calling his sisters “slags” for the way they dressed, and showing his mother extremist videos online.
When he was arrested, King replied: “I don’t believe in the UK law, the only law I believe in is the law of Allah.”
While counter-terror police say King was on the cusp of committing a terrorist attack when he was arrested, his barrister Hossein Zahir KC said the teenager’s planning was “in its infancy”.
“He was very far from carrying out an act of terrorism”, he said. “In general, the offending was marked by a striking degree of immaturity, and far from covert the conduct is public and at times designed to attracted attention.”
Mr Zahir said online messages with the woman were simply “adolescent flirtation” and “fantasy”, and he put forward prison reports and evidence of conversations with an imam as evidence that King no longer supports ISIS and is moving away from hard-line extremism. In a phone call to his mother, King told her: “I’m not extreme anymore.”
He has admitted preparation of terrorist acts between December 22 2021 and May 17 2022.
