Two extremists who encouraged copycat terror attacks in the aftermath of the New Zealand mosque shootings will now serve jail terms.
Morgan Seales, 20, and Gabriele Longo, 26, had communicated on a WhatsApp group, which was set up shortly after the attacks.
The purpose of the group chat was to encourage users to emulate the accused gunman with further attacks on Muslims, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Longo, who joined the group immediately offered to post files from his online library of bomb-making instructions, which he then posted the following day.
When one contributor wrote “let’s kill some Muslims”, Longo replied: “Or Jews.”
In a separate post, Seales wrote: “The best time to attack a mosque is Friday prayers or a wedding. Everyone there at once.”
The two were convicted by a jury of encouraging terrorism, possessing material for terrorist purposes and collecting or making a record of information useful to a terrorist.
Longo was also found guilty of disseminating terrorist publications. He was sentenced to six years in prison, while his counterpart, Seals got four years of jail time.
“Both of you were in danger of indoctrinating others in that group chat. There were some very young people, some as young as 14.” read the statement.
“Your activity posed not only a threat to Muslims who were your potential victims but also a threat to everyone in our democratic society.” – Judge Bayliss added
