Top Met counter-terror officer warns of children as young as 10 accessing extreme material online
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Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said teams had foiled 43 ‘late-stage’ planned terror attacks since 2017, including three in the past 12 months. A top Met officer has warned of children as young as 10 accessing extreme material online amid a rapid increase in “grotesque fascination” with violence.
![[Police and security services have foiled 43 late-stage terror attacks since 2017 (Sean Dempsey/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/09/25/14/53f502aa7a31c7c6b895e2866811ed09Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjk1NzMzMjY4-2.18763914.jpg)
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, who is senior national co-ordingator for counter-terrorism policing, said there had been a rise in suspects having a “pick and mix of horror” within their internet search histories. And she said those encountered by her teams were as young as 10 or 11 years old, and that investigators were seeing an increasing amount of young people accessing extreme material.
It was also revealed that since 2017, police and security services have foiled 43 “late-stage” planned terror attacks since 2017, including three in the past 12 months. Some of those were “goal line saves”, said Ms Evans, with the most recent three planned attacks being two Islamist plots and one extreme right-wing aimed at causing mass casualties.
Speaking at a press briefing at New Scotland Yard, Ms Evans said: “I use the word smouldering really, because we have some really deep, dark hot spots, some pockets where we cannot leave the activity and the groups unattended, and we need to continue to maintain our focus on them to keep the threat at bay.”.
