Shocking Twist Revealed in Terrorism Case Involving Vulnerable Teenager
During an inquest, it was revealed that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had charged a vulnerable teenager with terrorism offenses despite knowing she was a suspected victim of online grooming and radicalization. It wasn’t until eight months later, following an official Home Office report confirming that Rhianan Rudd had been groomed by a US white supremacist from the age of 14, that the charges were dropped.
By the time the charges were withdrawn, Rhianan had already experienced severe anxiety about facing a trial and a potential prison sentence. Tragically, she was found deceased at Bluebell House care home, where she resided five months after the charges were dismissed.
According to the Chesterfield coroner’s court testimony, Rhianan, who became the youngest girl in the UK to face terror charges, had downloaded bomb-making instructions from the internet at the age of 15 after being groomed and radicalized by American white supremacists. Counter-terrorism authorities discovered that she had expressed intentions to “blow up a synagogue” and cause harm to as many people as possible.
It was disclosed during the inquest that Rhianan had started showing signs of far-Right radicalization after being groomed by her mother’s boyfriend, Dax Mallaburn, a US neo-Nazi with a history of violent convictions. Mallaburn, who had dated Rhianan’s mother in the past, was also identified by a US Supreme Court ruling as a member of the neo-Nazi group the Arizona Aryan Brotherhood. Additionally, Rhianan alleged that Mallaburn had behaved inappropriately towards her.
The inquest further revealed that Mallaburn’s influence on Rhianan was unbeknownst to her mother, Emily Carter. Despite a child protection inquiry initiated by Derbyshire county council social services in 2019 due to Mallaburn living with the family, concerns about the risk of Rhianan being radicalized were not raised.
Rhianan had also been in communication with another US white supremacist, Chris Cook, who provided her with instructions on creating homemade explosives and weapons. Cook was later imprisoned in the US for his involvement in a white supremacist scheme to disrupt the electricity grid. Rhianan’s fascination with Adolf Hitler and Nazi ideology led her to carve a swastika on her forehead at one point.
In September 2020, counter-terrorism police began investigating Rhianan following her mother’s report to Prevent, the anti-radicalization program, about her daughter’s interest in far-Right violence. Prosecutors deemed charging Rhianan as urgent after she ran away from home in April 2021, leading to her arrest in Sheffield shortly after.
During the inquest, Nick Price, the head of the CPS’s counter-terrorism division at the time of the Rhianan investigation, acknowledged that prosecutors were aware of Rhianan’s vulnerability and history of self-harm before deciding to
Mr. Price also mentioned that the CPS had been made aware of reports from child welfare services stating that Cook had allegedly pressured Rhianan to send him images of herself. Despite this information, Mr. Price expressed during the inquest that he did not believe, at that point, that the case against Rhianan should have been dropped given her vulnerable status as a child. He explained that, from their perspective, they were still in the process of comprehending the full evidential picture.
The inquest revealed that a shift in assessment occurred only after charges were filed, leading to the Deputy Children’s Commissioner (DCC) triggering a Home Office national referral mechanism (NRM) for Rhianan. This mechanism identified her as a victim of human trafficking and modern slavery, including grooming. Following the NRM report, the charges against Rhianan were eventually withdrawn in December of that same year.
A psychiatric evaluation on the impact of the police investigation on Rhianan highlighted that she became fixated on the idea of going to prison and experienced severe anxiety due to the uncertainty and limbo of her circumstances. Distressing entries from Rhianan’s diary, written in the months following her arrest, were presented during the inquest. One entry expressed her desire for death and suicide, while another featured the word “sorry” and a swastika drawn in her own blood.
Mary Lees, head of children’s services at DCC, acknowledged that the diary entries indicated a fixation with death. When questioned about whether the CPS was aware of Rhianan’s negative experiences between the charges being filed and subsequently dropped, Mr. Price confirmed that they were aware in general terms.
Rhianan tragically passed away at the age of 16 in 2022. The inquest also shed light on Rhianan’s troubled childhood, marked by instances of violence allegedly inflicted on her mother by her father. The ongoing inquiry is delving into the actions taken by MI5, the CPS, police, and social services to safeguard Rhianan following her radicalization and subsequent arrest.
