Youngest girl in Britain to be charged with terror offences killed herself after being groomed by American neo-Nazis, inquest hears
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The youngest girl in Britain to be charged with terror offences killed herself at children’s home after being groomed and radicalised by two convicted American neo-Nazis, a coroner ruled.
Autistic Rhianan Rudd, 16, plotted to blow up a synagogue and scratched a swastika into her forehead after coming into contact with the two men, one of whom was dating her mother and moved into their Derbyshire home.
Rhianan was found dead at Bluebell House children’s home near Newark, Notts, on May 19, 2022, five months after terror charges against her were dropped.
A four-week inquest into her death heard how Dax Mallaburn, a violent US neo-Nazi with a swastika tattoo on his forearm, moved into the family home in Clowne, Derbyshire, in 2017 after forming a relationship with Rhianan’s mother Emily Carter via a prison pen-pal scheme.
Chesterfield Coroner’s Court heard Rhianan was also in contact with Christopher Cook, from Ohio, with whom she exchanged explicit photographs. Cook, 23, a member of the banned terrorist group Atomwaffen Division, was jailed in the US in 2023 over a plot to attack power grids.
Rhianan, who had a history of self-harm, was charged with six counts of terrorism in April 2021, removed from school and placed on remand at Bluebell House.
But terror charges against her were later dropped in December 2021 after the Home Office report made a formal finding that she was a victim of exploitation.
Rhianan was referred to the Home Office’s Prevent deradicalisation programme and underwent therapy sessions. The last of six sessions was held on May 16, 2022, days before Rhianan’s death.
She was found hanged in the shower fully clothed. In the hours before she had posted on Instagram the message: ‘I’m delving into madness.’
Rhianan’s family believe that the teenager should have been treated from the outset as a victim of exploitation rather than a terror suspect.
Jesse Nicholls, the family’s lawyer, had told the inquest she had been ‘subjected to an extraordinary and exceptional level of state involvement in the period leading up to her death’ and adding that her ‘known vulnerability’ made her unable to cope.
Chief coroner Alexia Durran concluded there were chances for the police and Derbyshire County Council to refer Rhianan Rudd earlier for consideration as a potential victim of modern slavery.
She heard that there were missed opportunities by counter terrorism policing East Midlands (CTPEM) and Derbyshire County Council to refer Rhianan to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).
But judge Durran concluded on Monday that there were no systemic failures by authorities which contributed to Rhianan’s death.
Content retrieved from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14794213/Youngest-girl-Britain-charged-terror-offences-killed-groomed-American-neo-Nazis-inquest-hears.html.
