Bradford Community Support Team (BCST) are dedicated to supporting those at risk of radicalisation to move on and engage in life in a fuller, more balanced way through the prevent agenda.
We provide safeguarding and education, working alongside local statuatory and non-statuatory organisations supported by the Home Office.
The project began in 2016 with the aim of safeguarding the young people of Bradford from the ever-growing threat of extremism.
Although anyone can be radicalised, there are factors that make children and young people particularly vulnerable.
Look at some of the warning signs here.
Extremists will often target young people due to their perceived vulnerability, offering a sense of community, identity and purpose.
National statistics for the year ending 31 March 2022 state:
Source: Operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation: Arrests, outcomes, and stop and search, Great Britain, quarterly update to March 2022
The increasing prevalence of young people in the extreme right-wing terrorism space is a particular concern, with much of this growth resulting from children being targeted and radicalised by right-wing extremists online – including through multi-player online gaming, YouTube and chat forums. This worrying growth has been occurring since 2015, when young people under the age of 24 accounted for less than 20% of extreme right-wing terrorism arrests – in 2020 they accounted for nearly 60%.
Source: Merseyside Police
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. This includes safeguarding vulnerable young people from extremist views and material. The covid 19 pandemic has resulted in referrals to Prevent falling to the lowest for 5 years – at a time when extremist grooming presents a growing risk to children. –
Source: Counter Terrorism policing 18.11.2021.
National coordinator for Prevent stated “At CTP (Counter Terrorism Policing) we have long warned that a ‘perfect storm’ of factors would potentially lead more young people to engage with extremist content online, and potentially follow a path towards terrorism”.
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Young people arrested for terrorism related offences:
Salman Abedi, Jake Davison, and Ali Harbi Ali were 25 or under when committing their acts of terrorism, resulting in the loss of innocent lives.
The current youngest terrorism offender in the UK is a boy from Cornwall who downloaded a bomb making manual and other terrorist related material at the age of 13.
Mohammed Owais Sabir, a young Bradford male aged 25 was charged with 9 terrorism offences.
A 15 year old boy from Haworth, West Yorkshire was charged with right-wing terror offences.
A 15-year-old boy from South Derbyshire had been identified as the facilitator of an openly racist channel on an encrypted app. He was taken to court on terrorism related charges and was quoted saying
“I spent a lot of time in my bedroom doing nothing. I think I need to be a normal child again”.
Connor Burke a 19-year-old from southeast London, pleaded guilty to disseminating a terrorist publication – linked to a manual that he had shared on a social media platform, which contained information on how to create improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Burke’s barrister, Naeem Mian QC, said:
the teenager’s “mortified” parents were at Woolwich crown court for the sentencing hearing, and believe he “fell down a rabbit hole” online during lockdown. “It is every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said. “Through a toxic combination coming together, a young man who is from a very loving background but socially isolated found he was having to stay at home as many people were during lockdown. So the isolation was even greater. “He was therefore spending too much time on his computer and on the internet, in his room by himself. “He is a young man who has disappeared down something one would term as a rabbit hole. A very dark rabbit hole which became something of an echo chamber.”
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