Ongoing parliamentary hearing explores events surrounding the 2021 case which resulted in terror charges against the 13-year-old.
During an ongoing parliamentary hearing in the Australian state of Victoria, a senator from the country’s third-largest political party criticized the Federal Police for its handling of terrorism charges against an autistic teenager.
Greens senator David Shoebridge scolded the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for the “obscene abuse of power and authority” in the case, even calling for an independent review to hold those involved accountable. “The radicalization was happening as a result of the actions of your own officers,” Shoebridge said.
The hearing stems from a series of incidents that began in 2020 when the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services reported that a 13-year-old boy known as “Thomas Carrick” had viewed terrorist material on school computers. They also alleged in a report that he made threats to a female student and sent a photo of a decapitated body to another student.
Subsequently, his parents approached Victoria police for help because of his continued fixation with Islamic State (ISIS) leaders’ videos. They revealed that he was continuously watching such videos on his computer and had asked his mother to buy bomb-making ingredients. The father even told police that he was “prepared to sacrifice [his] son for the safety of the Australian community.”
Victoria Police started a therapeutic and rehabilitative process to support Thomas. Given that he was known to have an IQ of 71, a psychologist assessed that his ISIS fixation was not based on religious ideology and that he “demonstrated little knowledge about Islam.”
His parents provided the Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) with access to his home, phone, and information about his school and psychologist. One police officer who filed a report after examining Thomas’s phone determined that he also seemed fascinated with both China and the Communist Party, but he hadn’t downloaded any religious images or verses from the Qur’an. The police also arranged for an Imam to meet with Thomas regularly and answer any questions he may have had.
Less than a month after the police began working with Thomas, a case manager was told by a consulting psychologist that Thomas’s fixations needed to be considered within the context of his autism spectrum disorder and 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.
Yet three months after his parents went to the police, the JCTT, made up of Australian federal police, Victoria police, and members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, also began to gather evidence and information to charge him with terrorism offenses under the guise of an operation named “Bourglinster.”
In turn, the JCTT used undercover agents to communicate and groom Thomas online, with one posing as a 24-year-old Muslim man who spoke to him for 55 days, producing 1,400 pages of online chats. The agent eventually introduced Thomas to another agent who posed as an overseas extremist, which resulted in Thomas sending him a photo of himself in his school uniform, wearing a face mask, and holding a knife with the word “ISIS” written on it.
After a house search, the then 14-year-old was charged in October 2021 with being a member of a terror organization and advocating terrorism. The offenses carried maximum penalties of 10 and five years, respectively.
Yet, during a judgment in the Children’s Court of Victoria late last year, a permanent stay was ordered against Thomas, as Magistrate Lesley Fleming determined that police conduct “fell profoundly short of the minimum standards expected of law enforcement officers” and that Thomas’s rehabilitation was “thwarted.”
Despite the criticisms, AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney told those attending the parliamentary hearing that he would sign off on the operation again. “The person was on the path of radicalization long before we became involved,” he said. “That radicalization was not our intent or purpose.” He also would not confirm whether any action had been taken against the officers involved.
Civil rights groups, including local representatives from the Islamic Council of Victoria, call for the federal government to investigate the case.
