A Manchester schoolgirl who downloaded bomb-making guides and became obsessed with suicide bombing has been spared prison after pleading with the court to let her “prove that I am not a terrorist”.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, told Manchester youth court that she “deeply regrets” possessing terrorism manuals and getting caught up in an online world of extremism.
She was was arrested in April after counter-terrorism detectives found she had exchanged thousands of WhatsApp messages with a 14-year-old boy from Blackburn, who was given a life sentence earlier this month for plotting to behead police officers on Anzac Day in Australia.
In the first sentencing of a terrorism offence in a UK youth court, district judge Khalid Qureshi said she would be subject to a 12-month intensive referral order.
The girl had earlier admitted two terror offences including possessing a detailed bomb-making guide known as the Anarchist Cookbook.
