Teenager who plotted copycat Southport assault on dance faculty and Oasis live performance after being uncovered to ‘abhorrent and violent’ social media content material is jailed for 14 months

A would-be Southport copycat killer who plotted to attack a dance school and an Oasis reunion concert has been locked up for 14 months.

McKenzie Morgan, 18, told friends of plans to target the concert in Cardiff, and had a note targeting the dance club near his home, the Old Bailey heard.

He was inspired by Axel Rudakubana, 18, who was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 52 years for the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Stancombe, seven, and Alice Aguiar, nine, who he stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance holiday club on July 29, 2024.

Morgan, who like Rudakubana was aged 17 at the time of the offences, had pleaded guilty to possessing a document useful for terrorism.

On Friday, Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC sentenced him at the Old Bailey to 14 months in youth detention.

Afterwards the counter-terror chief who investigated Morgan said he was ‘undoubtedly a dangerous young man’ who needed to be locked up.

But in a hard-hitting statement he said the ‘vulnerable’ teenager’s radicalisation was ‘a terrifying indictment of the abhorrent commentary, hateful opinion and violent imagery that too many of our young people are exposed to via the myriad of online sites, chat forums, and gaming and social media platforms’. 

The case comes just days after a boy of 16 who planned to mimic the Southport killer by attacking a Taylor Swift-themed event wearing a copycat green hoodie pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

Prosecutor Corinne Bramwell had told the court how Morgan had praised the Southport attacker in Snapchat messages between April 7 and June 2 last year.

He shared images of Rudakubana, saying that he wanted to engage in a similar terrorist-style attack and was trying to make the deadly poison ricin, the court was told.

One of the people on Snapchat reported Morgan to police and he was also referred to children’s mental health services due to concerns from his mother.

Morgan told a psychiatric nurse on June 2 that he wanted to hurt others, and he planned to commit a Rudakubana-style terrorist attack, Ms Bramwell said.

He said that he had been researching bombs and poison and how to stab and kill people, having enjoyed watching terrorist attacks.

The nurse disclosed the conversation to police and recommended an autism assessment.

Later the same day, police arrested Morgan at his home in Cwmbran, South Wales.

Officers seized his electronic devices and mobile phones, on which the terrorist manual was found.

Further examination revealed that last April, Morgan had sent a message asking ‘how to burn people’s faces’.

He had stated: ‘In my head I now have the motivation to go ahead with some sort of attack.’

He also sent a picture of a 15cm kitchen knife advertised on Amazon to another Snapchat user with the question: ‘Would this work?’

Ms Bramwell said records showed he had gone on to attempt to buy the knife.

Last April 26, he searched online for two local playgrounds and a youth dance academy.

Two days later, he created a note on his mobile telephone on ‘places to attack’ which included a screenshot of the dance academy identified on a map.

On Snapchat messaging, he revealed a further plan to bomb the July 4 Oasis concert at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and that he had tried to make ricin.

In May, he made screenshots of news articles about police investigating an alleged attack on a prison officer by the Southport killer.

On the day of his arrest, Morgan researched knives and searched for the school he had attended until June 2024.

In a police interview, Morgan admitted having read the terror manual and said he had sent Snapchat messages because he was ‘bored’.

He denied trying to make ricin or intending to attack his school, the dance academy or the Oasis concert and he only meant ‘to shock’.

He told police that he had been unhappy and been bullied at school, the court was told.

Ms Bramwell told the court that Morgan was a risk to himself and also a high risk to others.

Mitigating, Michael Stradling pointed out the teenager had no history of violence and asserted the greater risk was of self-harm or the defendant suffering harm at the hands of others.

The barrister said: ‘I asked him what he wants to say and what I would described as a true heartfelt manner he said that he wanted you to know that he is very sorry.’  

Morgan could not be identified previously during the trial because of his age, but the restriction was lifted on his 18th birthday last week.

He squeezed a green stress ball as Judge Whitehouse said: ‘From April of last year you were messaging other people on Snapchat and those messages included praise for Axel Rudakubana and you said you wanted to carry out a terrorist-style attack like him.

‘You were also searching about two playgrounds and a local dance academy and on two occasions you tried to buy a 15cm kitchen knife from Amazon.

‘One of the people you were talking to told the police about what you were saying and at around the same time your mum asked for a mental health appointment because she was so concerned about your behaviour.

‘The nurse very properly reported you to the police.

‘You told police you didn’t intend to carry out a terrorist attack or make Ricin and just intended to shock people.

‘There is no evidence you had any political or ideological motivation.

‘Your motivation appears to have been to emulate the level of violence used by Axel Rudakubana in the Southport attack.’

The judge also made a criminal behaviour order preventing Morgan attending venues where children might be following his release, barring him from accessing knives and restricting his internet use.

Morgan is currently being held in a secure psychiatric hospital after a ‘severe depressive episode’.

The Crown Prosecution Service said he was not charged with planning or attempting an attack as he had been ‘fantasising, expressing violent thoughts, and seeking attention online, rather than making concrete plans or taking steps to carry out an attack’.

In addition there was ‘no evidence’ Morgan shared his thoughts with his family, or evidence of a terrorist purpose, it added.

Bethan David, of the CPS, said: ‘In this case, while the defendant expressed violent fantasies online, there was no evidence of a real plot or attempt to carry out an attack.’

Afterwards Detective Superintendent Andrew Williams, of Counter Terrorism Policing Wales, said: ‘Mr Morgan was not born bad. 

‘He didn’t come into the world wanting to be a terrorist or aspiring to one day kill people, let alone children. 

‘As a teenager himself when he committed the offence, he was vulnerable to the malign influences that pray on our young people in today’s online world.

‘The fact that he was heavily influenced by the perpetrator of one of the most horrific attacks this country has seen in recent times, is a terrifying indictment of the abhorrent commentary, hateful opinion and violent imagery that too many of our young people are exposed to via the myriad of online sites, chat forums, and gaming and social media platforms.

‘As a dad, I know first-hand that parents are under a lot of pressure, and monitoring what our kids are doing online is not easy.

‘But it’s not about invading their privacy, or the modern-day equivalent of reading their diary, diaries were not gateways for predators to exploit. It is about us keeping them safe from harm.

‘I didn’t become a police officer to put teenagers in prison, it’s not something I want to be doing. 

‘But if they can access dangerous, highly addictive, and influential content, there is a very clear risk that it will destroy their young lives before they’ve really begun.

‘Whilst I am hugely thankful to my team for halting a potential attack on young innocent lives; there are no winners today, just a sense of sadness that highlights the need for us as a society to grip this issue and finally stop our young people being exploited in this way.’