{"id":876524,"date":"2026-09-01T19:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876524\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T19:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:08:17","slug":"teenager-pleads-guilty-to-planning-terrorist-bombing-targeting-opera-house-and-sydney-marathon-australian-security-and-counter-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876524\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenager pleads guilty to planning terrorist bombing targeting Opera House and Sydney marathon | Australian security and counter-terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A school student has testified about falling down a social media rabbit hole that led him to planning to bomb the Sydney<\/a> Opera House in a terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to planning a terrorist act over the course of more than a month in 2024.<\/p>\n

In a sentencing hearing in the New South Wales<\/a> supreme court on Tuesday, the teenager gave evidence about how he was gradually exposed to increasing levels of Islamic extremism online.<\/p>\n

He first saw extremist material on TikTok in 2024 when aged 14 and became interested by accounts of conquests in previous centuries, the court heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was historical \u2026 the time of the Crusaders, empires a long time ago,\u201d the 16-year-old told the court.<\/p>\n

The aftermath of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks and Islamic State propaganda were increasingly shown to him, and the videos also became more violent, the teenager said.<\/p>\n

While he started to become more radicalised, he began communicating with other people on an encrypted app, Telegram, about his desire to learn about committing terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you like talking to them?\u201d asked the boy\u2019s barrister, Michael Valentin.<\/p>\n

The teen replied: \u201cYes, I found it interesting \u2026 [they were] a new group of people, I was trying to relate to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The teenager said he then began researching how to target the Sydney Opera House with a bombing on one of its busiest days \u2013 the running of the Sydney Marathon.<\/p>\n

The landmark serves as the finish line for the globally significant race, making it an ideal target for maximum impact on human life, the 16-year-old said. The idea came from watching videos about the 2013 Boston Marathon attack<\/a>, where three people were killed and more than 500 were injured by two bombs planted at the finish line.<\/p>\n

The teen agreed that he told someone online: \u201cI am picking the location, places where lots of people and tourists are out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will test and then do the operation, inshallah [God willing].\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his justification for planning the attack was contained in a written message that said: \u201cthe country I am living in helped America evade [sic] Iraq and Afghanistan and killed many Muslims\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite his detailed planning, he said he was only \u201c50\/50\u201d about whether he would actually carry out a bombing.<\/p>\n

He spoke of having a \u201clittle voice\u201d in his head trying to persuade him against committing terrorism.<\/p>\n

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On Tuesday, the teen said he disavowed everything Islamic State stands for and held no extreme views.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m deeply sorry for the things I did,\u201d the boy told Justice Stephen Campbell.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease show me some remorse.\u201d<\/p>\n

His lawyer urged for a non-custodial sentence, to enable the teenager to continue his deradicalisation in the community.<\/p>\n

Having been on bail under strict home detention since November 2024, the teen has been allowed to attend events under his parents\u2019 supervision, including the Vivid festival and the Royal Easter Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, we have before you a young man who \u2026 has seen the errors of his ways,\u201d Valentin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully he is now out of the rabbit hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Sophie Callan SC acknowledged the \u201ccandid\u201d evidence of the teenager, but said there is no other appropriate possibility than a term in custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere remains a level of naivety in expressions of insight \u2026 that would leave Your Honour with a degree of caution,\u201d Callan said.<\/p>\n

Campbell will deliver the sentence on 29 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A school student has testified about falling down a social media rabbit hole that led him to planning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-876524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876524","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=876524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}