LEO WALBY: Expelled at 13.. Crime spree by 14.. Converted to Islam at 17.. Jailed for terrorism offences at 19

A TEENAGE tearaway who "stopped offending" after converting to Islam has been jailed for three and a half years after he admitted trying to garner support for ISIS on TikTok and Telegram.

Leo Walby, 19, (above) was expelled from mainstream school at the age of 13 and received 14 convictions for 40 offences between the ages of 14 and 16, including for arson after he set fire to newspapers on a bus, assaults and possession of a bladed article.

He was also convicted of racially aggravated harassment after he called someone a black n****r and a black c***.

It emerged in court that he had been referred to the Government Prevent scheme, to combat extremist behaviour, in 2017 when he was just 11 or 12, but the case was closed after there was no engagement from his family.

Sentencing him, Judge Anthony Leonard KC, said that after converting to Islam in 2023, Walby initially found "peace" from the religion and stopped his "rash of offending."

But he went on to promote extremist Islamism including a propaganda video that declared that Sufis, Shia and Christians should all be executed and which declared that executions and beheadings are normal.

Judge Leonard said: "The material looked at individually and collectively constituted the clearest intention on your part to encourage others to support ISIS financially and militarily. You included a report which recited Islamic State’s intention to continue the war against Shia’s, ‘in every place on earth’, another which extolled the virtue of those engaged in jihad describing it as the, ‘pinnacle of

Islam’.

"You ceased your offending when you converted to Islam because it was a peaceful religion. It is hard to explain how you became sucked in to the extremism, but you did. It is even harder to understand why you went on to disseminate the material which you viewed."

The court heard that police from the Met Police’s Counter Terrorism Command got an evidential capture of his telegram channel, with 256 followers, from July 9 to August 23 last year and similar for his TikTok account, “@sstranger in Arabic text, with 1,507 followers and 10,800 likes, which were under pseudonym user names.

But, the IP address and an email linked him to his home address.

A number of the postings were found to express support for the need to "strike terror" to disbelievers and "the enemy" and to encourage the raising of funds for terrorism through cryptocurrency.

Videos included a speech by Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a mentor to Osama Bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001, an exploding suicide bomber, one of Maher Meshaal, considered to be a martyr by ISIS supporters. and ISIS promotional and combat videos.

Prosecuting, Frederick Hookway, said: "The arson was when the defendant set fire to some paper on the top deck of a bus and it had to be put out by the driver with a fire extinguisher. There was a Prevent referral in 2017, but it was closed because there was no engagement from his family.

Defending, James Hasslacher, said Walby was thought to have mild autism and other mental health issues and had actually stopped posting such material by choice six weeks before his arrest as he knew it was wrong. He also expressed true regret in his first police interview, he said.

He said: "He moved from school to school due to bad behaviour and moved from conventional school aged 13. He was a child off the rails and initially when he found Islam this stopped and he found peace, but a year after converting in 2023, he found online extremism and thought it would be cool to join in - he recognises now it was stupid. He regrets this now."

Walby, of Swanley, Kent, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on April 2 to six counts of dissemination of terrorist material, contrary to section 2 of the Terrorism Act (TACT), 2006.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of failing to disclose a password, after being served notice, contrary to section 53, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), 2000.

He was arrested on October 4 2024, as part of a proactive investigation by officers from the Counter Terrorism Command.

He was arrested at his home address in Swanley, Kent and officers also carried out a search at the address and seized various digital devices.

As the investigation progressed, officers found evidence that Walby had been sharing various posts sharing extreme Islamist-related terrorist material, including Daesh propaganda through various social media accounts he was controlling on TikTok and Telegram.

Walby was charged on 5 October 2024, with six counts of disseminating terrorist material.

As the investigation continued, officers also applied to the court for a "section 49 notice" to compel Walby to provide them with a password to a cloud-based storage account he held.

However, even after the notice was obtained from the court, Walby still refused to provide officers with the password, so he was subsequently charged with failing to provide the password.

Walby was told he will serve two-thirds of his custodial term in custody before his case is referred to the Parole Board for consideration of whether he can be released. He will then serve the remainder of the custodial term, if any, and an additional 12 months in the community on conditional licence.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command said: “Our investigation found that Walby was sharing various pieces of terrorist material across a number of social media accounts he was controlling.

"This kind of content can be extremely harmful, so where we identify people like Walby who are responsible for this, then we will take action and he is now facing the very serious consequences of doing this.

"I’d encourage anyone who comes across extremist or terrorist material online to report it to our specialist team who will review to determine whether further police action is necessary and appropriate."