{"id":758472,"date":"2026-06-25T03:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758472\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:10:11","slug":"brisbane-teen-terror-accused-teenager-accused-of-planning-terror-attack-on-peter-dutton-found-not-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758472\/","title":{"rendered":"Brisbane teen terror accused: Teenager accused of planning terror attack on Peter Dutton found not guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"

A teenager accused of plotting nail bomb attacks against then-opposition leader Peter Dutton<\/a> and a Labour Day march has been found not guilty of preparing a terrorist act.<\/p>\n

The jury returned its verdict on Thursday after two days of deliberation.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

A teen accused of plotting nail bomb attacks against then-opposition leader Peter Dutton has been found not guilty of preparing a terrorist act.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The teen, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, stood trial in Brisbane Supreme Court<\/a> after pleading not guilty to one count of carrying out acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.<\/p>\n

The family of the teen, now aged 17, gasped and cried when the verdict was read out.<\/p>\n

The boy was about to turn 16 when he rode his scooter around Brisbane<\/a>\u2019s suburbs in July 2024 to buy nails, metal pipes and ingredients for explosives, the jury heard.<\/p>\n

They were shown dozens of text messages, online posts and hand-written diary entries that detailed the teen\u2019s fixation on infamous terrorists including Oklahoma City bomber<\/a> Timothy McVeigh and the Christchurch mosque shooter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goal of the planned bombing campaign was to bring attention to the argument that humanity was worse off with modern industries and technology, crown prosecutor Sally Flynn said.<\/p>\n

The teen used his iPhone and laptop to search for \u201cwhere is Peter Dutton located\u201d as part of an alleged plan to use bombings to oppose the Liberal Party\u2019s then-policy of building multiple nuclear power stations in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are you trying to kill?\u201d a friend of the teen texted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the Liberal Party,\u201d the teen replied.<\/p>\n

The teen was also obsessed with a fictional group of wild west outlaws as depicted in the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, the jury heard.<\/p>\n

He texted a friend about the fictional terrorist attack at the end of the film Fight Club, in which a series of buildings are blown up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve gained an autistic interest in bombs but it\u2019s going to be tough to shake it off,\u201d the teen wrote in his diary.<\/p>\n

He engaged in \u201cclearly dangerous experimentation\u201d with household chemicals, defence barrister Laura Reece told the jury<\/a> on Monday during her closing statement.<\/p>\n

But the central issue at trial was the teen\u2019s state of mind or intention at the time of the acts, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a troubled kid. He was experimenting not only with explosives but with ideas and beliefs,\u201d Reece said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was seeking out extremist material from wildly contradictory sources from the dark corners of the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teen had written in his diary about serious mental health symptoms and was affected by his parents\u2019 separation, Reece added.<\/p>\n

She argued he was telling an \u201cedgy joke\u201d when he texted his friend about bombing Brisbane<\/a>\u2019s Labour Day parade, which usually attracts 20,000 people.<\/p>\n

Support is available by calling Lifeline 13 11 14 or beyondblue 1300 22 4636.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teenager accused of plotting nail bomb attacks against then-opposition leader Peter Dutton and a Labour Day march…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-758472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758472","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=758472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}