Heeley described the teenager’s “obsession” with extremism and how he collected videos of terror attacks and ranked killers who had carried out atrocities against minorities across the globe.
The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, asked a contact at The Base what he could do to help and was told to promote the banned organisation, to put up flyers and to attract recruits – which the prosecution said he did.
He bought chemicals online with a view to making explosives and discussed blowing up an electricity substation or a mobile phone mast near his home, the court heard.
Heeley said that in December 2024, immediately after researching the Christchurch mosque attack in New Zealand, the boy looked up synagogues in the Newcastle area.
She said: “He researched local synagogues and we say he was gathering weapons, identifying targets, preparing for acts of terrorism.”
Heeley said: “We understand that the defendant denies he had any intention to commit acts of terror, anything he wrote down were just empty words, he claims.
“The prosecution deny this and point to his active research, his messages, the fact he had collected weapons and material to create explosives, these were more than words, this was a young man actively preparing for a terrorist act and had the police not got there in time, who knows what he may have done.”
The case was adjourned until Wednesday.