Teen found not guilty of plotting terror attack on Peter Dutton after court hears of ‘edgy joke’

A teenager accused of plotting nailbomb attacks against the then opposition leader Peter Dutton and a Labour Day march has been found not guilty of preparing a terrorist act.The jury returned its verdict on Thursday after two days of deliberation.The teen, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, stood trial in the supreme court in Brisbane after pleading not guilty to one count of carrying out acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.The family of the teen, now aged 17, gasped and cried when the verdict was read out.The boy was about to turn 16 when he rode his scooter around Brisbane’s suburbs to buy nails, metal pipes and ingredients for explosives in July 2024, the trial heard.The jury was shown dozens of text messages, online posts and hand-written diary entries that detailed the teen’s fixation on infamous terrorists, including the Oklahoma City bomber and the Christchurch mosque shooter.He texted a friend about the fictional terrorist attack at the end of the film Fight Club, in which a series of buildings are blown up, the court heard.“I think I’ve gained an autistic interest in bombs but it’s going to be tough to shake it off,” the teen wrote in his diary, the court heard.He engaged in “clearly dangerous experimentation” with household chemicals, defence barrister Laura Reece told the jury on Monday during her closing statement.The court heard the teen used his iPhone and laptop to search for “where is Peter Dutton located”, as part of an alleged plan to use bombings to oppose the Liberal Party’s then policy of building multiple nuclear power stations in Australia.“Who are you trying to kill?” a friend of the teen texted.“Members of the Liberal Party,” the teen replied.But the central issue at trial was the teen’s state of mind or intention at the time of the acts, Reece told the court.“He was a troubled kid. He was experimenting not only with explosives but with ideas and beliefs,” Reece said.“He was seeking out extremist material from wildly contradictory sources from the dark corners of the internet.”Reece said the teen had written in his diary about serious mental health symptoms and was affected by his parents’ separation.She argued he was telling an “edgy joke” when he texted his friend about bombing Brisbane’s Labour Day parade, which usually attracts 20,000 people.But crown prosecutor Sally Flynn had alleged that the goal of the planned bombing campaign was to bring attention to the argument that humanity was worse off with modern industries and technology.The teen was also obsessed with a fictional group of wild west outlaws as depicted in the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, the jury heard.