A 16-year-old girl from Manchester has been charged with two terrorism offences, the north-west counter-terrorism unit has said. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will appear before Westminster magistrates court on 22 July 2015.
Police were led to the girl after initially investigating a boy, aged 14, from Blackburn, who was held on 2 April on suspicion of preparing a terror attack in Australia. Counter-terror police and officers from Greater Manchester police’s tactical aid unit arrested her at a house in Longsight, Manchester, on 3 April. Counter-terror officers said they had uncovered communications between the UK and Australia representing a “credible terrorist threat”.
Police in Melbourne arrested five suspects in what they claimed was an operation to foil an Islamic State-inspired plot to attack a first world war memorial event.
The girl from Manchester has been charged under section 58 of the Terrorism Act, which relates to offences of collecting or making a record of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism or possessing a document or record containing information of that kind. The 14-year-old boy from Blackburn has since appeared in court in the UK accused of two counts of inciting terrorism in Australia.
A statement released by Greater Manchester police on Thursday afternoon said: “A 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with two counts of section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. She will appear before Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday 22 July 2015. On 3 April 2015, officers from the tactical aid unit and north-west counter-terrorism unit executed a warrant at a house in Longsight.”
The arrest comes just days after London marked the 10th anniversary of the 7/7 terror attacks, and less than two weeks after 30 British tourists were killed in the Tunisia beach massacre. Last week, emergency services in London took part in a mock terror attack on the tube network to test the capital’s response.
