19-Year-Old British Student Sentenced To 3.5 Years Jail For Sharing Bomb-Making Manual On Telegram

LONDON (VINnews) — A South London teenager was jailed for 42 months after sharing a bomb-preparation manual online which he disguised as a guide for the video game Minecraft. After police arrested the youth they also found Nazi memorabilia in his room as well as other terror-related documents, according to a Daily Mail report.

19-year-old Connor Burke, a London university student, shared the manual, which contained information on how to create improvised explosive devices (IEDs), on Telegram to a group containing around 12,000 users.

Police arrested him at his home in Bexleyheath and found other prohibited documents on his computer as well as a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and daggers, rings and uniforms. They also discovered the Anarchist Cookbook, a book which provides advice on building explosives, according to evidence heard at Woolwich Crown Court.

Burke pleaded guilty in July 2021 to disseminating a terrorist publication and possessing documents enabling acts of terrorism. He was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court to a total of 42 months’ imprisonment and an additional 12 months on licence.

Buying and selling Nazi memorabilia, including copies of Mein Kampf, is not illegal in the UK. However, it is illegal in the UK to knowingly possess material that could assist in terrorist-related activities under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act.

Burke had concealed his explosive-manual account under the innocent name of  “Minecraft_Bow_Ammo_Types” in an attempt to hide its true nature. However police from the Counterterrorism unit found the file, which contains detailed information on constructing explosive devices and established that the owner of the account was a university student. They soon located Burke and arrested him in February 2021.

Burke pleaded guilty to all the counts at a hearing in July 2021 – but claimed that the dissemination of the bomb-making manual was done so on a reckless basis. However the prosecution disputed this claim and the judge determined that Burke posted the manual ‘in the knowledge it could directly or indirectly be used by other members of the group in which it was posted and assist in the preparation or commission of terrorist acts’.