Home of 16-year-old Perth boy killed after Willetton stabbing searched by police a year before attack
Video shows the radicalised Perth teen – who was shot dead in a car park – blowing up a school toilet with a homemade bomb.
WA News
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Shocking footage has emerged of the moment a 16-year-old boy detonated a homemade bomb in a school toilet block, triggering police searches of his home and putting him further on authorities’ radar for his extremist views.
The boy was believed to have been suspended after the incident, but had returned to school before he was shot dead by police on Saturday night after a stabbing in a Perth carpark.
A crack counter-terrorism team including agents from the nation’s top spy agency is probing the radicalisation of a Perth teen who stabbed a man in a random attack before being shot by police.
In video filmed inside the toilet block and obtained by The Advertiser, a group of Rossmoyne Senior High School students can be seen crowded near toilet cubicles before a loud bang and explosion fills the room.
“Get away,” one boy yells before the blast.
The boys can be seen scattering as the video cuts out.
None of the boys featured in the video is accused of any wrongdoing in relation to the toilet bombing, or any of the other events at the school, or connected with the 16-year-old.
It is this incident that triggered police searches of the boy’s house and led to further intervention for the teen who was already known to authorities.
The Advertiser can reveal anti-terror teams are actively monitoring 141 people across the country at risk of becoming violent extremists. Thirty-six are being monitored in South Australia.
The Advertiser can also reveal police searched the homes of the 16-year-old stabber in the year before he took “the path of jihad” and stabbed a stranger in a suburban Bunnings car park.
The searches are believed to have been related to an incident at Rossmoyne Senior High School where the boy tried to detonate a homemade bomb in one of the school’s toilet blocks.
Senior government sources have revealed a crack counter-terrorism team is helping to investigate the incident, which has not been formally been declared a terror attack.
Officials said the WA Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) was “supporting” the local police investigation.
The team comprises of Australian Federal Police officers, WA detectives and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation agents.
It can also be revealed parents at the boy’s school are petitioning the WA government to ban the use of prayer rooms in public schools across the state, with fears radicalised students are using the spaces to hold meetings where they spread their extremist views.
Neighbours told The Advertiser detectives had searched two homes where the boy lived – one with his mother and the other with his father – over the past year.
The boy’s mother did not answer the door at her home, less than 2km from the Bunnings where he carried out his attack. The home the boy shared with his mother is just metres from a local primary school.
Neighbours said police visited the home every couple of months, with the most recent visit coming about two months ago.
Neighbours of the boy’s father – were the teen lived on occasion – said the home had been searched by police about a year ago.
The neighbours, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said officers had searched the property for several hours.
There is no suggestion the any other members of the boy’s family has engaged in any wrongdoing.
The neighbours said the boy had become so public about his radical views since converting to Islam that they were certain he was responsible for the Saturday night attack after reading initial media reports on the incident.
They said the boy was often seen walking around his affluent suburb wearing traditional Muslim robes and sharing his religious views.
The boy’s father declined to comment when approached by The Advertiser at his home on Monday morning.
An ASIO spokesman said: “As is longstanding practice, ASIO does not comment on operational matters.”
A spokeswoman for WA Police Minister Paul Papalia said 14 people had participated in the
Countering Violent Extremism and Support program since it started in 2015.
“The primary focus of the program is to work with individuals at risk of becoming violent extremists and engaging them in tailored interventions,” she said.
“This could include but is not limited to peer or religious monitoring, mental health support, mentoring, or education and employment services.”
She said nine people in WA were currently participating in the program, including five youths and four adults.
She said there were 141 currently participating in the programs across the country.
“The program is funded by the Commonwealth under the auspices of the Australia New Zealand Counter Terrorism Committee with resourcing by WA Police and other agencies including the Departments of Education, Health, Justice and Communities,” she said.
An SA Police spokeswoman said 36 people were being supported by a Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, but they “don’t currently have any information that should concern our local community”.
“These are people who have identified mental health issues where they are fixated upon a person of have ideological views that might represent a concern to us,” she said.
“This centre is comprised of psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health clinicians, and is co-ordinated by a police Senior Sergeant.”
The teen boy was shot dead after charging police with the 30cm-long kitchen knife he had used to stab a stranger in the back.
The victim, a man aged in his 30s and not known to the boy, remains in the Royal Perth Hospital in a serious condition with a punctured lung.
Police on Sunday said the boy, who they believed was radicalised online, had acted alone in the attack and had such not declared it a terrorist attack.
But Rossmoyne parents are now fearful a group of radicalised students at the school could plan further attacks.
Several kept their children home from school on Monday as a result.
One child is believed to have been “indoctrinated” into the group before his parents were aware.
They are trying to urgently remove him from the school.
One parent said the boy had told his peers he planned to “bomb” a graduation ceremony.
“Everybody knew that this kid was radicalised,” they said.
The parents are among more than 450 people who have signed an online petition to ban prayer rooms in public WA schools.
“The promotion of religious activities within public schools perpetuates societal divisions and contributes to the alienation and marginalisation of certain religious and cultural groups, thereby fostering religious radicalisation among impressionable students,” the petition organiser wrote.
Parents are working to organise urgent meetings with the school to discuss their concerns.
“Parents are at their wit’s end,” one said.
“I don’t want counselling, I want to know that my child is going to be safe at school.”
Originally published as Home of 16-year-old Perth boy killed after Willetton stabbing searched by police a year before attack
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