How reporting a WhatsApp message stopped imminent terror plot by Isis-loving teenager

On 13 April 2022, a video appeared in a WhatsApp group showing a young man holding a knife as words appeared proclaiming: “Now the battle has begun and it will continue until the day of judgement. So take out your sword, O youth, and destroy the kufr [disbelievers].”

The man in the video was Matthew King, and he was planning a terror attack targeting soldiers and police in the UK.

Aged just 18, he had very recently converted to Islam and started supporting Isis after getting kicked out of school and spending a “great deal of time online” during the Covid pandemic.

His rapid transformation meant he was not on the security services’ radar and was completely unknown to counter-terror police.

King had been becoming steadily more extreme for months, telling a female friend he wanted to fight in Syria, become a “martyr” and torture and kill an American or British soldier.

“I guess jihadi love is powerful,” King wrote. “I just want to kill people.”

But the tipping point was the WhatsApp video, which was posted shortly after King updated his status to read: “Kill non-muslims wherever you see them.”

A member of that WhatsApp group called the UK’s anti-terrorist hotline to raise their concerns, and the alarm was also raised by King’s concerned mother when she contacted the Prevent counter-extremism programme.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said officers “moved very quickly” to find out more about King’s beliefs and his activities.

“We became aware of his plot as a direct result of calls from members of the public,” he told journalists, saying it was an “unusual” way for an attack to be thwarted.

“It started with people telling us his behaviour was becoming increasingly extreme and unstable, and he had an extreme Islamist mindset.”

Police launched an investigation in April 2022 and what they uncovered triggered a high-level covert investigation in partnership with MI5, who deployed a “whole host of tactics” to monitor King and ensure he could not put his plans into action.

open image in gallery

He had signed up with an online retailer that sold knives and swords and uploaded an “immensely helpful” photo of his passport to prove his age, police said.

King is not known to have purchased a weapon but did buy “tactical gloves” and “special operations glasses”, and had a black flag associated with jihadist groups.

He had already conducted hostile reconnaissance targeting police officers, who he filmed outside Stratford railway station and magistrates’ court in March and April 2022.

The following month, he was under surveillance when he returned to Stratford and later posted an image of police officers outside the court with the caption: “Target acquired.”

Then on 17 May, King was traced as he travelled to the 7th Battalion The Rifles barracks, which houses soldiers and filmed its perimeter.

The security services had seen enough and moved in to arrest the teenager at his family home in Wickford, Essex.

As he was cautioned by officers, he replied: “I don’t believe in the UK law, the only law I believe in is the law of Allah.”

open image in gallery

The terror plot is among at least 37 MI5 say have been foiled since March 2017, the majority of which are jihadist, followed by extreme right-wing and a small number of “single-issue” cases.

Mr Murphy said it was a “mystery” why King was drawn into jihadism, and that investigators believed his journey to terrorism only started five months before his arrest.

He was living with his mother and sisters in Wickford, Essex, at the time after leaving secondary school with no qualifications.

In his early teens, King had “dabbled with drugs” and was expelled from school after becoming aggressive, being moved to a secure unit and leaving education entirely at the age of 16.

He claimed to have converted to Islam during the Covid pandemic, when he was “spending a lot of time on the internet”, Mr Murphy said.

His family started to notice King change but initially thought it was a good thing, and his mother supported him by driving him to different mosques where he could potentially worship.

open image in gallery

But none welcomed him. “When he went into those mosques, he often talked about violent jihad and war,” Mr Murphy said.

“The reception he received was one of not supporting his rhetoric and language, and they were keen to counter his narrative. Clearly the reason he went to many mosques is because he wasn’t well received at any, and was warned against behaviour and comments.”

At the same time, King was viewing Isis propaganda, including gory training manuals on knife attacks, and researching notorious terrorists including the murderers of Lee Rigby and Isis executioner Mohammed Emwazi.

Mr Murphy said his conversion was “entirely self-initiated” and believes that King felt that jihadism could “offer an opportunity for stability in a troubled young man’s life”.

Defence lawyers said King was “far from carrying out an act of terrorism” and his conduct was “in its very infancy”.

Hossein Zahir KC told the Old Bailey King’s primary wish was to join Isis in Syria, but he had made no concrete steps for travel and only intended to mount a terror attack in the UK if his journey was “frustrated”.

King accepted carrying out hostile reconnaissance of police in Stratford and at the military barracks, but had not purchased a weapon and “the prospect of an act of terrorism was remote”, Mr Zahir said.

The defence argued that the teenager showed an “extraordinary lack of sophistication and a very significant degree of immaturity” but Mr Murphy said police believed an attack was “imminent”.

“We are increasingly worried about the low sophistication nature of terror attacks and plots,” he added. “He could have just picked up a kitchen knife. We felt the risk was getting too high to the public for us not to do anything.”

But Judge Mark Lucraft KC found that King was “dangerous”, telling the court that even after being arrested and remanded in prison, he made “violent threats to kill and chop up staff”, target their loved ones and “behead an imam”.

“You had an entrenched Islamist extremist mindset, extreme anti-Western views and intended to commit terror attacks,” he told the teenager, handing him a life sentence with a minimum prison term of six years.