Teen accused of planning terror attack on Peter Dutton and Brisbane march was making ‘edgy joke’, court told

A teenager accused of preparing a nail bombing campaign was either a “troubled kid” who made edgy jokes or a determined terrorist in waiting, a court has been told. The teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, spent last week on trial in the Brisbane supreme court after pleading not guilty to one count of acts done in preparation for or planning a terrorist act. He was accused of researching and testing homemade explosives to attack members of the Liberal party and a public place. His alleged targets included then opposition leader Peter Dutton and Brisbane’s Labour Day march. The teen engaged in “clearly dangerous experimentation” with household chemicals, defence barrister Laura Reece told the jury on Monday during her closing statement. The central issue at trial was the teen’s state of mind or intention at the time of these acts, Reece said. “He was a troubled kid. He was experimenting not only with explosives but with ideas and beliefs,” she said. “He was seeking out extremist material from wildly contradictory sources from the dark corners of the internet.” The boy was about to turn 16 when he texted a school friend in July 2024 about bombing the Liberal party over its support for nuclear power and filmed himself testing incendiary devices in his back yard, the jury had heard. …