Unnamed 17 year old transgender terrorist
An unnamed 17 year old child who identifies as transgender was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow in February 2025 of a charge under the Terrorism Act and breach of the peace. As the crimes spanned between June 2022 and July 2023, the offender will have been around 15 years old at the time.
The offender is reportedly “obsessed by murder”, held “pro-Nazi” and racist views and had previously been referred to the UK-wide Prevent programme, which is designed to stop vulnerable people from being drawn into extremism. The Daily Mail reported that after a visit to the family home with a terrorism officer appeared to ‘go well’ and the child ‘engaged’ with the police, the involvement of Prevent ended. This echoes a recent horrific case where despite being reported to the programme three times, Prevent did not intervene with murderer Axel Rudakubana as they found no evidence of a fixed ideology or motivation.
Media reports indicate that the teenager wanted to carry out a mass shooting at an Edinburgh school after having “idolised” the killers behind the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the United States, in which 12 students and a teacher died. After apparently exhibiting a variety of alarming behaviours to fellow pupils over a period of time (e.g. dressing as the Columbine perpetrators and talking about placing bombs in classrooms), the offender turned up at school on 20 June 2023 wearing cargo trousers, a military tactical vest and helmet and carrying an imitation firearm. A photograph circulated on social media then unsurprisingly “provoked a considerable degree of fear and alarm among pupils and parents” and triggered a large-scale police operation. A second referral was then made to Prevent.
The Times reports that the offender was born female but identifies as a boy; only right-leaning media outlets such as The Times and Daily Telegraph were clear on this fact, although The Times uses male pronouns and The Telegraph avoids pronouns throughout. This is important given the extreme asymmetry between the sexes regarding perpetration of mass shootings, with males being very much more likely to commit such crimes compared with females (96% vs 4%). However, at least three females who identify as transgender (Audrey Hale, Maya/Alec McKinney and Trinity/Jamie Shockley) have been involved in perpetrating or planning school shootings in the US in recent years. Predictably, the BBC referred to the offender throughout their coverage as a “boy” and with male pronouns. It is unknown whether the Scottish teenager has received treatment at a gender identity clinic such as the Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow or has taken cross sex hormones (i.e. testosterone). See here for trans-identified offenders known to have been treated at Sandyford.
Bail was revoked by Judge Lord Arthurson and sentencing deferred for reports until March 2025. The offender, who was described as a “vulnerable young person” with mental health difficulties, is expected to be sent to a secure unit for young people.
Media reports
The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/obsessed-trans-pupil-intended-mass-shooting-at-edinburgh-school-dlb9pndvh archive
Daily Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/21/transgender-pro-nazi-plan-school-shooting-edinburgh/ archive
BBC Teenager plotted mass shooting at Edinburgh school https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w1pg65wz7o archive
Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14421855/Murder-obsessed-pro-Nazi-teenager-idolised-Columbine-killers-wanted-carry-massacre-Scottish-school.html archive