Threat against UK ‘smouldering’, top counter terror officer warns
The UK is facing a “smoldering” terror threat, with children as young as 10 accessing extremist online material, one of Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officials has warned.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner and Senior National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing Vicky Evans said a “conveyor belt” of young people were affected by extreme online content, some of whom may go on to commit “horrible behaviour”.
Police and security services have stopped 43 late stage terror plots since 2017, including three in the last year, some of which were “goal line saves”.
The UK’s official terrorism threat level is high, meaning attempted attacks are possible.
Counter-Terrorism Policing is a national network established by UK police services to prevent and investigate terrorism.
Speaking at Scotland Yard after taking over the national police duties this year, Metropolitan Police’s DAC Evans warned that search histories it was reviewing revealed “terrible material” that could be “easily and easily” Available online.
She said this included violent, misogynistic and racist content, as well as extreme pornography, material related to school massacres and “illegal immigration“ culture.
This “pick and mix of terror” is sometimes combined with terrorist material, with the ongoing threat from “spontaneous terrorists” becoming radicalized online.
“We’re seeing this grotesque fascination with violence and harmful views becoming more and more common,” she told reporters.
After the briefing, she told the BBC that tech companies had a responsibility to help counter-terrorism police “by giving them access to this type of material”.
She said a “whole-of-systems approach” was needed.
“We have some very deep, dark hotspots – places where we cannot leave activities and groups unattended and we need to continue to focus on them to stop the threat.”
DAC Evans said that in the past 12 months, police had interrupted three deliberate terror attacks late in the planning process, two of which were Islamist plots and one a far-right plot.
She explained that detectives did not anticipate the “volume and pace” of activity they saw.
DAC Evans added that the largest caseload in counter-terrorism policing remains Islamic extremism.
Meanwhile, the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad is a concern for counterterrorism detectives, she said.
“History tells us that instability breeds extremism, violence and acts of terror.”
She warned that groups like Islamic State “exploit chaos”.
She added that expressing support for the group that overthrew Assad’s regime – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – remains a criminal offense in the country because it is a banned organization.
