Counter-terrorism police encouraged an autistic 13-year-old boy in his fixation on Islamic State in an undercover operation after his parents sought help from the authorities.

The boy, given the pseudonym Thomas Carrick, was later charged with terror offences after an undercover officer “fed his fixation” and “doomed” the rehabilitation efforts Thomas and his parents had engaged in, a Victorian children’s court magistrate found.

Thomas spent three months in custody before he was granted bail in October 2022, after an earlier bail was revoked because he failed to comply with conditions.

Thomas, an NDIS recipient with an IQ of 71, was first reported to police by Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and then by his parents because of his fixation with Islamic State, which included him accessing extremist material online and making threats to other students.
Why Australian police are being accused of further radicalising an autistic 13-year-old boy – video

On 17 April 2021, his parents went to a police station and asked for help because Thomas was watching Islamic State-related videos on his computer and had asked his mother to buy bomb-making ingredients such as sulphur and acetone.

Thomas was investigated and charged with two terror offences by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT), which comprises Australian federal police, Victoria police and Asio members.

The court granted a permanent stay on the charges in October last year, but a copy of the decision has only recently been published.

“The community would not expect law enforcement officers to encourage a 13-14 year old child towards racial hatred, distrust of police and violent extremism, encouraging the child’s fixation on ISIS,” magistrate Lesley Fleming said in the decision.

“The community would not expect law enforcement to use the guise of a rehabilitation service to entice the parents of a troubled child to engage in a process that results in potential harm to the child.

“The conduct engaged in by the JCTT and the AFP falls so profoundly short of the minimum standards expected of law enforcement offices [sic] that to refuse this [stay] application would be to condone and encourage further instances of such conduct.”

Fleming found the JCTT also deliberately delayed charging Thomas with offences until after he turned 14, as it made it harder for him to use the defence of doli incapax, which refers to the concept that a child is not criminally responsible for their actions.

Police also inappropriately searched Thomas’s property shortly before he was charged, Fleming found.

“There was a deliberate, invasive and totally inappropriate search of [Thomas’s] bedroom without lawful excuse.

The operative gave evidence that Thomas was naive ... asking questions like whether he could join the kids’ section of Islamic State

“The search involved multiple Victoria Police members under the guise of attending to provide support to the family within the CVE [Countering Violent Extremism] framework.

“The conduct of the law enforcement officers involved subterfuge.”

Fleming, who noted that English was not the first language of Thomas’s parents, found his father told police “he was prepared to sacrifice my son for the safety of the Australian community”.

There was no evidence the AFP took any action in relation to the DHHS complaint, Fleming found. An online persona which later communicated with Thomas was activated a day earlier.
How the undercover operation unfolded

After Thomas’s parents spoke to Victoria police, Fleming found a decision was made by the force to manage Thomas “therapeutically”.

His parents provided Victoria police access to Thomas, their home, his phone, his mother’s phone, and to personal information about his school and psychologist.

Less than month after Victoria police started working with Thomas, a case manager was told by a psychologist who was working with them that Thomas’s “verbalisations need to be considered within the context of his ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and possible cognitive impairment.

“One of the key diagnostic criteria for ASD is highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus,” the psychologist told the case worker.