Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds had told jurors at the Old Bailey that they included documents explaining how to cause mass public disorder and inciting violence against racial groups
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A teenager created an online “library” of extreme right-wing material encouraging violent attacks on racial groups, a jury has found.
Joseph Cope was aged 16 and 17 when he used social media to encourage terrorism, the Old Bailey was told.
The defendant, now aged 20, published posts and images on a Telegram channel titled Serano’s Division.
Among the posts was a link to a separate Telegram channel called the Great Library Of Thule on which Cope had uploaded hundreds of extreme right-wing documents.
Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds had told jurors at the Old Bailey that they included documents explaining how to cause mass public disorder and inciting violence against racial groups.
By creating the link to the channel, Cope was effectively “providing a service to others to access those documents”, Mr Pawson-Pounds said.
The prosecutor said hundreds of similar documents were found on the defendant’s computer which were likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
The extremist material was uncovered following Cope’s arrest at his home in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, in June 2022.
In a search of his bedroom, police seized a number of extreme far-right books and a black snood with a skeletal jaw depicted on it, associated with the extreme right-wing.
The defendant largely declined to comment in police interviews.
Cope was charged with three counts of encouraging terrorism, one of dissemination of terrorist publications on Telegram, and a single specimen count of possessing information useful to a terrorist.
Jurors were told that since the alleged offences between September 2021 and June 2022, Cope’s mental health had deteriorated and he was now unfit to stand trial.
Explaining the trial of issue, Mr Pawson-Pounds said: “The key questions for you in relation to each of the allegations are whether Joseph Cope did what is alleged.”
On Wednesday, a jury at the Old Bailey found he did the acts alleged against him after deliberating for just over an hour.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC set a disposal hearing on April 17 to decide on the appropriate supervision order in the case.