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Andy Gordon Auzzie Cops Groom Child Terrorist, Satanic, O9A, Nazi Mosque massacre, sinister blood dr
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How Australian undercover police ‘fed’ an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with Islamic State
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Court finds counter-terrorism unit’s conduct fell ‘profoundly short’ of minimum standards expected of law enforcement officers
How the undercover operation unfolded
After Thomas’s parents spoke to Victoria police, Fleming found a decision was made by the force to manage Thomas “therapeutically”.
His parents provided Victoria police access to Thomas, their home, his phone, his mother’s phone, and to personal information about his school and psychologist.
Less than month after Victoria police started working with Thomas, a case manager was told by a psychologist who was working with them that Thomas’s “verbalisations need to be considered within the context of his ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and possible cognitive impairment.
“One of the key diagnostic criteria for ASD is highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus,” the psychologist told the case worker.
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“It is suggested that ISIS represents a circumscribed interest: an intense, narrow preoccupying interest that provides intense focus, social identity for him, a topic to be researched … as well as a topic of conversation that brings him attention.”
A police officer who performed a report based on information downloaded from Thomas’s phone found that he appeared fascinated with China and symbols of the Chinese Communist party and that there were no religious images or verses from the Qur’an present.
Victoria police also arranged for an Imam to meet regularly with Thomas to discuss Islam and answer any questions he may have had.
But three months after his parents went to police, the JCTT started an operation targeting Thomas, code-named Bourglinster.
It would run in parallel with the efforts to counter his violence extremism.
An online covert operative was tasked with communicating to Thomas using two personae: a 24-year-old Muslim man from NSW, and a more extreme person located overseas.
The purpose of the operation was to find Thomas online and “engage him in chat to ascertain his intent if any”, the operative told the court. The strategy was to gather intelligence and information that could be used to charge Thomas with terrorism offences.
On the first occasion Thomas spoke with the operative online, he asked the officer: “are you a spy” and “do you work with the Asio”, to which the operative, in the role of the first persona, responded “I hate these killab [dog]”.
The operative then wrote “should I ask the same of you akhi” to which Thomas replied “I am 13 years old”.
The operative chatted with Thomas on 55 of the next 71 days, including during breaks at school and late at night.
The operative told an operational psychologist, who was expected to provide advice to him about how to communicate effectively online with Thomas, that “this … is a kid on the spectrum, I’m letting him do all the talking [and] just building rapport”.
There were 1,400 pages of online chats between the pair, Fleming found.
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The first persona introduced Thomas to the second, more extreme, persona, who encouraged him to make a bomb or kill an AFP member.
But the operative gave evidence that Thomas was naive, and living a “fantasy life online”, including by asking questions like whether he could join the kids’ section of Islamic State.
On 8 August 2021, Thomas sent a photo to the operative which showed him wearing his school uniform, a hoodie and a face mask and holding a knife with “ISIS” written on it in marker.
His house was searched within days, and he was charged less than two months later.
Fleming found that AFP assistant and deputy commissioners had been involved in authorising the operation which resulted in Thomas being charged, and that “the AFP was at all times aware of TC’s age, his complex mental health issues, and his fixation on ISIS”.
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