A knife-obsessed teenager who talked about carrying out a terror attack with a blade or acid has been jailed for three years and four months. The individual concerned, Sudesh Amman, 18, was sentenced today in the Old Bailey after he pled guilty for being in the possession of terrorist material.
Some of the material that he admitted to included manuals on bomb-making, knife-fighting and close combat. This also included the infamous, ‘How to Make a Bomb in Your Kitchen’.
Amman also pled guilty to the distribution of Al-Qaida propaganda on a family Whatsapp group, where young siblings, as young as 11 were exposed to the extremist material. Further bomb-making material was also shared through Skype chat and it emerged that Amman was looking to become a martyr, something that he had written in his notebook.
Amman was identified through a Telegram chat when a photo of a knife and two firearms on a Shahada flag were identified to him with the words, “armed and ready”.
On searching his premises, police officers seized an air gun, a black flag and a combat knife
In a search of his family home, officers seized an air gun, a black flag and a combat knife.
The science and Maths student had previous convictions for possession of an offensive weapon and cannabis.
He was aged just 17 when he began collecting terrorist material in 2017.
Acting Commander Alexis Boon, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said Amman had a “fierce interest in violence and martyrdom”.
He said: “His fascination with dying in the name of terrorism was clear in a notepad we recovered from his home. Amman had scrawled his ‘life goals’ in the notepad and top of the list, above family activities, was dying a martyr and going to ‘Jannah’ – the afterlife.
“It’s not clear how Amman became radicalised but it is apparent from his messages that it had been at least a year in development. Whatever the circumstances, this case is a reminder of the need to be vigilant to signs of radicalisation and report it.”