An alleged lone wolf terrorist has been charged with allegedly planning attacks on Perth mosques, Western Australia Police Headquarters and Parliament House.
Jayson Joseph Michaels, 20, was arrested on Thursday after WA Police Force’s State Security Investigation Group searched his home in Bindoon, where he lives with his parents. Police said he came to their attention last month due to alleged racist, anti-Semitic and islamophobic posts in a Telegram group chat.
Police allegedly seized firearms, imitation firearms, ammunition, a ballistic vest, multiple knives, a gas mask, lockpicking tools, and a manifesto-style document allegedly outlining in detail bombings and shooting he was planning to carry out.
“We will allege he was acting alone to prepare for an extremely serious terrorist attack that would create a mass casualty event,” Police Commissioner Col Blanch said.
“There was a notebook that outlined preparations for a terrorist attack at significant locations including the WA Police Headquarters, building, Parliament House and places of Muslim faith in WA.”
Mr Blanch said Mr Michaels was able to be charged with terror-related offences so quickly because of the alleged manifesto.
“When we executed the search warrant, the ideology was clearly, in our view, sufficient to meet the threshold of the charge. That was written in the notebook. We reached that conclusion as a result of establishing the ideology very quickly, that being White supremacy,” he said.
Mr Blanch also said the alleged group chat was “not confined to Australia” and alleged Mr Michaels was “seeking to obtain explosives”, but said police believed the alleged plot was a “confined event” and there was no ongoing risk to the public as the suspect was in custody.
Mr Michaels was charged with acting in preparation for a terrorist act, using a carriage service to menace or harass, possessing a prohibited weapon, and two firearms offences, and appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon, The West Australian reported.
Magistrate Belinda Coleman decided details of the case could “distress” people in the gallery and ordered they not be read out in court, and Mr Michaels’ lawyer asked for an adjournment to prepare a bail application.
Ms Coleman adjourned the application to March 23, and while she ordered a home detention report be completed she stressed no bail decision had ben made and exception circumstances would have to be shown for release to be granted due to the seriousness of the charge.
The terror-related charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The charges come after another Perth man Liam Alexander Hall, 32, was charged with committing a terrorist act for allegedly throwing a homemade bomb that failed to detonate into a crowd of anti-Australia Day protesters on January 26.
Header image: Left, right, items seized by police (WA Police).
The post Man, 20, accused of planning lone wolf terror attacks on Perth mosques first appeared on The Noticer.
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