Source : Perth Now news
A deeply personal diary shown to a Brisbane jury has revealed a private school student accused of planning a terrorist attack repeatedly acknowledged he “needed help” while documenting mental health struggles, violent thoughts and an obsession with explosives.
The now 16-year-old boy, who cannot be identified due to his age, is standing trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court charged with committing acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.
He has pleaded not guilty.
On the third day of the trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court, jurors were led through a series of intimate journal entries penned by the teenager.
The prosecution alleges that during the same period these entries were written, the boy was actively researching bomb-making, nuclear energy, and the local Labour Day march.
The defence has countered that the evidence presented represents only a narrow “snapshot” of the boy’s digital life, suggesting his online behaviour and statements to friends were frequently misunderstood or intended as dark humour.
‘My F–king autism’: Inside the journals
The comprehensive diary entries, shown to the jury by both the defence and prosecution, detailed the teenager’s ongoing battle with depression, self-harm, and escalating psychological distress.
In one entry, the teenager explicitly recognised his deteriorating state.
“I had a couple hours where I thought about how I’ve probably been radicalised from ideology … just like I was for Nazi Germany in 2021, where I had an unhealthy fixation/obsession, on Hitler/Nazi Germany, except this time it’s an unhealthy obsession with bombs and explosives, with the intent to kill and harm people,” he allegedly wrote.
“This also being motivated by the Unabomber’s ideas about society, which I’ve had an interest in for months now.
“During the hours when I was pondering this, I realised that I actually needed help.”
In another section of the journal, he allegedly expressed a desire to seek professional assistance so he could eventually look back at this period of his life and “cringe” about it all.
Elsewhere, he lamented his neurodivergence, writing: “There’s so much things and opportunities that I’ve missed in life because of my f—ing autism.”
He also allegedly wrote about waking up to “auditory hallucinations”.
The jury heard the teenager also documented instances of self-harm. Following a domestic dispute.
“I did it again, I sliced my wrist after an argument with mum. At least I know my knife is sharp if I ever pulled a homicide rampage,” he allegedly wrote.
He also recorded his anxiety about his family discovering his activities, detailing the moment his parents allegedly uncovered weapons and tactical components hidden inside his bedroom drawers.
“When I came home I had to have a talk with my parents about why I had bomb-making chemicals, knives, and pipes in my room,” he allegedly wrote.
“I explained to them my motives, that I wanted to strike back at people I don’t like, politicians, companies that have caused harm to society and nature.”
Following that discovery, the jury heard the family took a vacation, during which his mother confronted him about the material found in his room.
“Mum asked me if I genuinely meant it when I said that I wanted to kill people,” the boy allegedly wrote.
“She asked me if this idea of murder was because of Ted Kaczynski, as murder is against my common nature.
“She had a point at the end there, but I said that a bit of it was because of him.”
In a separate entry reflecting on his thoughts, the teenager observed: “I now realise how much of a psychotic nutjob I seem in this situation.”
The court also heard evidence of the teenager’s affinity for gaming, with the trial revealing multiple references to the critically acclaimed video game Red Dead Redemption II.
After a diary entry, the teenager drew a sketch of Dutch van der Linde, the charismatic and radical gang leader from the popular western title.
Pipe bombs, chemicals, and the Unabomber
Detective Steven Gibb, a member of the Queensland Joint Counter Terrorism Team, continued his evidence on Wednesday, detailing the physical items allegedly seized during police raids at the separate properties of the boy’s parents.
Among the items allegedly recovered from a shed at the Enoggera property was a collection of chemicals and hardware consistent with explosive manufacturing.
Mr Gibb identified photographs of a 1.5-kilogram bag of sulphur, a bottle of acetone, hydrogen peroxide, galvanised steel pipes, and matching end caps.
Jurors were also shown an online instruction guide allegedly found in the boy’s browsing history titled “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mum” and attributed to an al-Qaeda publication.
Short video clips allegedly recovered from the boy’s devices depicted him conducting small-scale experiments, lighting substances on fire in tinfoil, and igniting small bottles filled with flammable liquids.
The prosecution also introduced evidence of the boy’s intense fascination with serial bombers and mass casualty attackers.
Receipts revealed the teenager had used his Brisbane City Council library card to borrow a biographical book about the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, the court was told.
Data extracted from his phone allegedly showed that he received a link via Discord containing a 17-minute GoPro video of the 2019 Christchurch mosque terrorist attack, which records allegedly indicated he accessed multiple times in July 2024.
‘Only a snapshot’
During cross-examination, the defence counsel pushed back against the narrative that the boy was a fully committed operational terrorist, arguing that his extremist interests were superficial and heavily filtered by internet meme culture.
The defence emphasised that out of the teenager’s massive volume of data, there were only a couple of brief searches regarding political figures, including a single view of Peter Dutton’s Wikipedia page and an article on nuclear power policy.
Furthermore, the defence pointed out that the teenager had sent an explicit apology message to his friends on Discord regarding his “edgy memes”, specifically referencing his Unabomber posts.
Addressing the allegation that the boy intended to target the annual Labour Day march, the defence noted there was only a single, brief conversation about the event with a friend online.
When the teenager messaged the friend stating he should be ready for the march, the friend replied that he would be.
That same friend testified earlier in the trial, telling the jury he never took the message seriously and regarded it as a joke.
The trial continues.
