After being caught hours prior to committing a terrorist attack at a Justin Bieber concert, a 17-year old boy has been sentenced to 11 years in custody. The attack was meant to be carried out at a Cardiff concert in Wales, back in June 2017. A terror attack was carried out only recently in May 2017, when 22 people were killed outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
In November, Lloyd Gunton, from Llantrisant in Wales. was found guilty of planning a similar sort of attack. The Bieber concert was scheduled to be held on June 30th at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, and according to sources, the security details and arrangement of the stadium were well researched by the teenager, along with detailed planning using a vehicle to carry out the attack.
Images that signaled his loyalty to the Islamic State and Cardiff threats were found in Gunton’s social media accounts, according to reports. These accounts were password protected by the keywords ‘truck attack’.
However, he was arrested before he could carry out these attacks, at his home in June 2017. He had on him a gutting knife, a claw hammer and a ‘martyrdom letter’. In the letter he had confessed to being part of the Islamic State and that the attack he intended to carry out, would be followed by more such attacks.
Judge Mark Wall, who handed out Ganton his sentence, said that he was sure that Ganton would have killed multiple people and not just one, if he had successfully carried out the attack. He also added that since he had been stopped before he could act, it was not possible to know how many people would have been injured or killed by him.
Judge Wall also disagreed with Ganton’s autism as being the contributing factor for his actions. He said that it was something he could recover from, and his attempts at such an offence will keep him under supervision for the rest of his life. Gunton was escorted back to the young offenders institution, where he has been held since his arrest.
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