Schoolgirl who killed herself after terror charges ‘wanted to blow up synagogue’

A teenager who took her own life after becoming the youngest girl charged with terror offences wanted to blow up a synagogue, an inquest has heard.

Counter-terrorism police found that Rhianan Rudd downloaded bomb-making instructions from the internet at the age of 15 after being groomed and radicalised by American white supremacists.

She was later found dead by care home staff after terror charges against her were dropped.

On Thursday, an inquest into her death heard that Rhianan began to show disturbing signs of far-Right radicalisation after being groomed by her mother’s boyfriend Dax Mallaburn, a US neo-Nazi.

At the same time, the teenager was in contact online with another US white supremacist, named Chris Cook, who supplied her with instructions for making homemade bombs and weapons.

Rhianan became “obsessed” with Adolf Hitler and Nazi politics, and at one point carved a swastika on her forehead, the inquest was told.

Chesterfield Coroners Court heard that counter-terrorism police began investigating the teenager in September 2020 after her mother, Emily Carter, reported her concerns to Prevent, the anti-radicalisation programme.

Rhianan was arrested the following month and later charged with downloading a bomb-making manual online. She was also accused of plotting a terrorist attack and became the youngest girl to be charged with terror offences in the UK.

However, the case was delayed before the charges were eventually dropped. It came following an intervention by the Home Office, which concluded she had been a victim of trafficking who had been groomed and sexually exploited.

Five months after the charges were dropped, Rhianan was found dead by her carer at Bluebell House, near Newark, Notts, on 19 May 2022, aged 16.

The inquest will hear evidence from MI5, the Crown Prosecution Service, police and social services about what steps the authorities took to protect Rhianan following her radicalisation and subsequent arrest.

Chief coroner Judge Alexia Durran heard that Rhianan first came into contact with Mallaburn when he began a relationship with her mother.

The inquest heard Mallaburn, who had multiple tattoos of swastikas, had served time in a US prison for possession of weapons.

He was also found by a US Supreme Court ruling to be a member of the neo-Nazi group the Arizona Aryan Brotherhood.

Teenager ‘admired Hitler’

Social workers, who were already involved with Rhianan’s care, became concerned that she was being groomed by Mallaburn, who the teenager told them had touched her sexually. The inquest was told that Mallaburn’s influence on Rhianan was “not known” to Ms Carter.

In September 2020 Ms Carter contacted Prevent “over her concerns about Rhianan’s obsession with far-Right material, explaining how she went from an interest in the two world wars to admiring Hitler”.

Following a police interview that month, an officer from Counter Terrorism Police East Midlands (CTPEM) reported: “Rhianan had said that she wanted to blow up a synagogue, is obsessed with Hitler and has downloaded bomb-making instructions”.

It then emerged that Rhianan had also been in touch online with Cook, who she told police was a neo-Nazi who had encouraged her to read far-Right books.

A USB computer stick she later handed over to police revealed that Cook had supplied her with manuals on bomb-making, guerrilla warfare and material glorifying Nazism and the targeting of black, Jewish, gay and transgender people.

Her Derbyshire school also reported her extremist tendencies to Prevent, including a series of disturbing WhatsApp messages shared by Rhianan.

One fellow student who saw the messages told teachers: “It was getting to the point where she wanted to kill someone at school and blow up a Jewish place of worship. It doesn’t matter how many people she killed.”

As a result, the teenager was flagged “as a high level of risk of radicalisation”.

MI5 involvement

There were fears the teenager had become a follower of two banned far-Right US terror groups – the Atomwaffen Division and the Order of Nine Angles, a bizarre neo-Nazi satanist cult.

Rhianan was arrested in October 2020 and bailed to the care of social services at Bluebell House, where she was barred from any contact with Mallaburn or Cook.

Shortly before a carer found her body at the home, Rhianan wrote in her diary: “I wish life could be normal. I just want to be myself.”

Judge Durran has granted anonymity in the inquest to a senior MI5 officer involved in Rhianan’s case, provisionally called Witness A, on the basis that identifying them would put them and their family at serious risk.

Some MI5 material relating to its involvement with the teenager is also being withheld.

Judge Durran said at an earlier hearing that she was satisfied that a statement from Witness A contained a description of all MI5 material relevant to the scope of the inquest.

Under cross-examination from Jesse Nicholls, counsel for Rhianan’s family, Supt Stephen Riley, of CTPEM, admitted that arresting the vulnerable teenager had presented a risk to her mental well-being, but said this had been balanced by her bail conditions and safeguarding measures adopted by the authorities.

Grooming had ‘huge’ impact

The hearing heard that after the charges against her were dropped, Rhianan’s mood at Bluebell House continued to fluctuate wildly. At times she suffered a recurrence of disturbing thoughts before going on to feel more hopeful.

Just a few days before she was found dead, she was described by social workers as “doing well and focusing on her exams” and had expressed “her hopes for the future”, including discussing setting up a business.

In a moving pen portrait read to the inquest, Ms Carter wrote that Rhianan had been born into a relationship affected by domestic violence but had been “unapologetic” and “unique in all she did”.

She said: “My daughter being groomed was huge and I saw Rhianan change. This had a great impact on her and I did all I thought was right by her.

“She was one of the kindest and most loving children I ever had the honour to know. People used to tell me how lovely she was.

“I miss her more than life itself, I miss her smile, her laugh, her conversations – I just miss her.”

The hearing continues.

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