{"id":508973,"date":"2026-02-28T04:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/508973\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T04:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:30:18","slug":"how-a-20yo-living-with-his-parents-in-regional-wa-allegedly-plotted-a-terror-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/508973\/","title":{"rendered":"How a 20yo living with his parents in regional WA allegedly plotted a terror attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mass casualty terrorist attack allegedly planned to be carried out in Perth and motivated by white supremacy has been foiled with the arrest of a 20-year-old man, police say.<\/p>\n

Jayson Joseph Michaels yesterday became the first person in WA’s history to be arrested and charged with preparing a terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

He faces life in prison if convicted, according to police.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

There were dozens of knives among the weapons allegedly seized, along with axes and a slingshot. (Supplied: WA Police)<\/p>\n

It comes weeks after the arrest of Liam Alexander Hall, 32, on another terrorism-related charge, after he allegedly threw a homemade bomb<\/a> \u2014 which didn’t explode \u2014 into a crowd of people on January 26.<\/p>\n

Police allege Mr Michaels had been radicalised online and had been planning the attack in a notebook he kept at home.<\/p>\n

Here’s what we know.<\/p>\n

Alleged hate speech motivation<\/p>\n

Police say they received intelligence that racially motivated hate speech \u2014 specifically, involving white supremacist ideology \u2014 was being spouted on an encrypted communications platform over the past two months.<\/p>\n

Anti-Muslim ideology, antisemitism, and “quite frankly, abhorrent conversations” is how WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch put it.<\/p>\n

\"WA<\/p>\n

Commissioner Blanch said the messages were anti-Muslim and antisemitic in nature. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

It was alleged social media network Telegram was the platform for those conversations.<\/p>\n

An investigation ensued, which led police to a 20-year-old living with his parents in the town of Bindoon, 80 kilometres north of Perth\u2019s CBD.<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, the State Security Investigation Group made its way an hour up the Tonkin Highway to raid the sprawling rural lifestyle property.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jayson Joseph Michaels lived at his parents’ home in Bindoon. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Inside the home, they said they found seven firearms, imitation firearms, a ballistic vest, face shields, lock-picking equipment and a large collection of knives.<\/p>\n

But of most concern, the police commissioner said, was a notebook.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Parliament House in West Perth was one of the locations mentioned in the notebook police say they found at the home of the accused. (ABC News: Glyn Jones)<\/p>\n

Inside that book, it’s alleged, were plans to attack the WA Police headquarters in East Perth, Parliament House and undisclosed Muslim places of worship in the Perth metropolitan area.<\/p>\n

The Australian Federal Police allege Mr Michaels had created “a manifesto-style document outlining plans for an ideologically motivated attack of violent extremism involving mass casualties”.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

AFP superintendent Peter Hatch spoke at the media conference along with Mr Cook and Mr Blanch. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

The police commissioner claimed Mr Michaels had intentions to obtain explosives, but also use firearms in the alleged attacks.<\/p>\n

The guns seized were all long arms, police say, and legally owned by Mr Michaels and his father, who isn’t accused of any crime.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Several long-arm guns were allegedly found at the Bindoon property. (Supplied: WA Police)<\/p>\n

Police claim they also seized a butterfly knife and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition that had not been stored securely.<\/p>\n

Mr Michaels’s phones and computers are now in the hands of police, who are poring over the content.<\/p>\n

Complete shock<\/p>\n

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Michaels appeared in court for the first time and was remanded in custody.<\/p>\n

“There is no ongoing threat,” Premier Roger Cook told a press conference less than hour later.<\/p>\n

WA Police charge 20yo man with preparation for terrorist act<\/a><\/p>\n

Police have charged a 20-year-old man they allege was planning a “mass casualty” terror attack targeting public buildings in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

But taking no chances, security has been beefed up in the community, including at Parliament House and places of worship.<\/p>\n

As news spread of the allegations, Bindoon resident Ian Hall, who used to employ Mr Michaels, said he was “completely shocked”.<\/p>\n

He said Bindoon was a quiet community and not a place he would expect to produce the type of radical behaviour that had been alleged.<\/p>\n

But from political leaders, the message from the prime minister down to the local Perth MP was consistent.<\/p>\n

“Everybody has a responsibility to try to turn the temperature down,” as Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke put it.<\/p>\n

Imam Syed Wadood Janud of the Perth Ahmadiyya Muslim community made a simple observation last night.<\/p>\n

“I just want to highlight that \u2026 outside on our mosque, in big letters, [it says] love for all, hatred for none,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Imam Syed Wadood Janud says his community preaches love for all. (ABC News: Rebecca Trigger)<\/p>\n

“A mosque is a place of worship, a place of reflection.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mass casualty terrorist attack allegedly planned to be carried out in Perth and motivated by white supremacy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,255288,255289,255287,120867,255291,255286,44,14666,86,57934,255292,255290,14665,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-508973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bindoon","11":"tag-bindoon-man-planning-for-terror-attack","12":"tag-bindoon-terror-attack","13":"tag-col-blanch","14":"tag-history-of-terrorism-in-western-australia","15":"tag-jayson-joseph-michaels","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-perth-courts","18":"tag-perth-news","19":"tag-roger-cook","20":"tag-terror-attacks-in-wa","21":"tag-terrorism-in-western-australia","22":"tag-wa-courts","23":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}