Boy, 15, on terror-related charges faces court as police try to suppress reporting of case

Police have tried to throw a blanket of secrecy over a teenager charged with terrorism offences, days after publicly announcing his arrest.

A teenager accused of terrorism offences has faced court for the first time – with police trying to suppress information about the case they had already publicly released.

On Monday a boy, 15, from South Plympton, appeared in the Youth Court.

He has yet to plead to two counts of possessing supplies for, or taking steps in, the manufacture of an explosive.

The boy is further charged with possessing a document or record of information necessary for a terrorist attack.

Those charges have been publicly known since Saturday when, in a press release, SA Police announced the boy had been arrested at his home on Friday night.

At the time, police said the SA Joint Counter Terror Team was not investigating other suspects and declined to comment on whether the allegations were linked to a known terrorist organisation.

On Monday, however, police prosecutors asked that already-released information be suppressed, along with anything said in court and at any future hearing.

Citing a confidential affidavit, which was tendered but not read aloud in court, they claimed any public knowledge about the case had the potential to “prejudice ongoing investigations”.

Suppression should extend, they said, to ban publication of “the specific wording” of the charges laid against the youth.

Counsel for the youth supported the application, calling for additional publication bans on anything that would identify their client or his parents.

They said it would be “unfair” if “those who know the family” became aware of the charges.

They also said the fact police had publicly released the information already did not matter.

“Does it need to be reported over and over?” they asked.

The Advertiser opposed the application, saying the information had already been in the public arena for almost 72 hours because of an official police statement.

It also argued the wording of the charges – which are routinely published on the court’s own website – could not amount to “a significantly serious threat of prejudice”, as required by state law to warrant a suppression order.

It said the identities of youths before the court are automatically suppressed by law, and that matters being reported “over and over” was not a legitimate consideration under state law.

Magistrate Kate Hodder agreed and dismissed the bulk of the application.

She suppressed the details of the charges themselves – where they allegedly happened and on what date – but ordered that be reconsidered at the youth’s next hearing.

Ms Hodder then closed the court and excluded the media from the rest of the hearing.