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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Liam Buckler

Warped mind of evil Brit teen who inspired two mass shootings in US as he's jailed

An evil British teenager who inspired two mass shootings in the US has been sentenced to 11 and a half years in jail.

Daniel Harris, 19, from Derbyshire, UK, posted videos far-right extremist videos which were shared by Buffalo gunman Payton Gendron, who murdered 10 people in a US supermarket, and linked to Anderson Lee Aldrich, accused of killing five people in a gay bar in Colorado, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Harris on Friday, Judge Patrick Field KC said: "What they did was truly appalling but what they did was no more than you intended to encourage others to do when publishing this material online."

Referring to Gendron, 19, who pleaded guilty to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, the judge said: "This indicates that at the very least the material you produced and published has had some influence upon the young man, and I note he was a similar age to you, who went out and shot 10 black people dead in a store in Buffalo."

Daniel was able to inspire gun massacres by white supremacists in the US despite being under ''supervision'' by probation officers in the UK for racism offences (Daniel Harris/ Cavendish Press (Manchester) Ltd)

He was under "supervision" by probation officers in Britain but spent up to 14 hours a day on the internet at home during which unbeknown to the authorities he posted hate fuelled messages and videos calling for an armed uprising and celebrating white supremacist murderers including Norwegian Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant who killed 51 people outside two mosques in New Zealand.

His videos were viewed by both Gendron and Aldrich

Judge Field said he had "no hesitation" in coming to the conclusion that Harris was "highly dangerous" and passed an extended sentence, with a licence period of three years on top of the custodial sentence.

The teenager, who wore a grey suit, was found guilty following a trial of five counts of encouraging terrorism and one count of possession of material for terrorist purposes, relating to a 3D printer he was trying to use to make firearm parts.

The court heard his offences were carried out over a period of 14 months and began when Harris was 17.

Judge Field said: "You were, throughout that time, a propagandist for an extremist right-wing ideology. You were in close touch with other right-wing extremists online and there can be little doubt that you shared ideas between you."

Payton Gendron has admitted a supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York (Getty Images)

The court heard the videos he produced glorified mass murderers and encouraged others to emulate them by carrying out similar attacks.

One video, called How to Achieve Victory, said there was a need for "total extermination of sub-humans once and for all", the court was told.

Judge Field said Harris had previous convictions including the racially aggravated criminal damage of a memorial to George Floyd in Manchester.

He was engaged with a deradicalisation programme, but told the operative his behaviour was a "blip" and denied having any interest in politics.

At the time he made those claims, the court heard, he was creating a video homage to Thomas Mair, who murdered MP Jo Cox.

The judge said he demonstrated "a level of deceit and cunning".

Anderson Lee Aldrich, the only suspect in a shooting at a gay bar in Colorado (Uncredited/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

Joe Allman, prosecuting, said investigations following the shooting in which five people died at Club Q in Colorado revealed a link between videos posted by Harris and the only suspect in the attack, Anderson Lee Aldrich.

Mr Allman added: "The Crown say it demonstrates that individuals of the greatest concern have accessed the material produced by Mr Harris."

James Walker, defending, said Harris, of Lord Street, Glossop, was withdrawn from mainstream school at the age of seven and there had been "quite disgraceful failings" by his family and the local authority.

Harris had previously been ordered by a judge to wear an electronic tag and work with the youth offending service after he sprayed racist words on a mural to the murdered black security guard George Floyd.
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