A teenager accused of planning to carry out a terror attack at a Queensland Labour Day event changed his target to the Liberal National Party after researching its nuclear power policy, a jury has heard.
The boy, who cannot legally be identified, is currently on trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, charged with acts done in preparation for or in planning a terrorist act.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The jury has already heard in 2024, when the boy was 15 years old, he allegedly planned to let off a homemade bomb at a Labour Day march in Brisbane.
The teenager allegedly drew inspiration from the American terrorist Ted Kaczynski, known as “the Unabomber”, who killed and injured people with explosives, the jury has already heard.
Continuing her opening address on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Sally Flynn KC resumed detailing the teenager’s diary entries, web searches, and communications he had with a friend from school at the time.
The court heard the accused wrote in a diary that he had an “unhealthy obsession” with bombs and explosives. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
She told the jury on the day before the alleged planned attack in early May, the teenager told his friend he did not know if he would “do the bomb” at the event, as he could not purchase nails.
“It’d be better if I had nails as shrapnel,” Ms Flynn said the message read.
The jury heard the teenager made a diary entry on the same day, penning that he “got steak knives” from a store to potentially use instead.
As the event came and went, the jury heard the teenager continued to research different types of bombs and made purchases for equipment allegedly to make explosives.
Later in May, Ms Flynn told jury he expressed in a diary entry that he had an “unhealthy obsession with bombs and explosives with the intent to kill and harm people”.
‘Thinking of targeting the libs’
The jury heard, in the days following, the teenager sent his school friend photos of chemicals he had bought, and when he was asked “who are you trying to kill”, the teenager responded, “members of the Liberal party”.
When asked why, the jury heard the teenager replied: “because I don’t want a nuclear power plant an hour away from here”.
Ms Flynn told the jury the teenager made several online searches about the former federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and articles referencing the LNP’s nuclear power policy.
The jury heard the teenager wrote in his diary “the Liberals are proposing Australia head towards nuclear energy” and although he had been “thinking of trying to move on from the ideas I mentioned” he was now “thinking of targeting the libs”.
The court heard the teenager allegedly made searches online about former opposition leader Peter Dutton. (ABC News: Matt Roberts )
Ms Flynn told the jury on the same day he sent Kaczynski’s manifesto to his school friend and described the terrorist as a woods-based man “who proposed that the industrial system has f****d society”.
“The defendant says it’s the capitalistic aspect that has ruined society,” she said, reading his message.
“As well as how the industrial system has treated the environment, which nuclear power plants would harm the environment on a large scale.”
The teenager’s defence lawyer Laura Reece KC told the jury his online searches and purchases were “not really” an issue at trial, but “what was in his mind at the time he was doing those acts” would be.
“What his intention was, what he was contemplating, what his thinking was informed by,” she said.
Ms Reece told the jury her client’s diary showed he had an interest in explosives and Kaczynski, pointing to one entry where he said “I think I’ve gained an Autistic interest in bombs” which would “be tough to shake off”.
However, she told the jury to also consider his other entries, which revealed his “innermost thoughts” and “self-reflections”.
This included his struggles with feeling like he was “missing out” because of his autism diagnosis, his parents’ separation and his desire to self-harm.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
