An “incel” schoolboy who threatened to launch a Valentine’s Day massacre has pleaded guilty to possessing bomb-making videos.
Dihan Rahman, then aged 17, also made threats to attack his school’s prom and released “doxing” material on to the internet to encourage online attacks on female pupils.
The former army cadet from Uxbridge, west London, had violent Islamist material on his phone and was the administrator of a far-right social media group in the first known case of extremists finding “common ground” over their hatred of Jews.
He took selfies, dressed in his cadet uniform, giving a Nazi salute, with the caption “Heil Hitler” and took an image of himself with a noose and the caption “kys [kill yourself] f****t”, along with the numbers 1488 – a code for a white supremacist slogan.
Doxing is an online practice of exposing personal information about others to encourage members of the online ‘troll’ community to harass the named victim.
Rahman admitted to stalking a girl, who was two years younger than him, after she spurned his advances, along with her friend, who was the same age, and a teacher who investigated the stalking.
Even after his arrest, he made threats from behind bars as part of a misogynistic campaign against the women, the Old Bailey was told.
Serena Gates, prosecuting, had told the Old Bailey that Rahman had “embraced” extreme ideology that included graphic videos of women being mutilated and abused.
He was said to have material showing “Incel ideology” and misogyny alongside far-right and violent Islamist videos.
Incel is an online subculture of male so-called “involuntary celibates” which blames women for a lack of success in relationships and encourages violent attacks as retribution.
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Following an incident on 15 March 2024, in which Rahman took pictures of a girl, a teacher examined his phone and found images of beheadings, dead bodies, women being lashed and strangled by cable ties and images of Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and extreme political ideology.
One image showed Rahman wearing military fatigues and giving a Nazi salute and another showed him in the same outfit, holding up a green cord tied in a noose.
The teacher also saw images of Rahman with a headscarf around his face, in army uniform with the words “kill yourself” and an image saying: “Who’s in for a valentines school shooting?”
Rahman was also an administrator for a far-right group on the Telegram social media app called the Sturmjager Division, a violent extremist group that attracted young members, inspired by mass killers and figures from the far-right.
Rahman also had images and videos supporting Hamas and the October 7 attacks on Israel, along with graphic footage of ISIS executions and appeared to have made “common cause” with the far right, Ms Gates said.
Rahman had denied possessing bomb-making documents and videos that included the instructions used by the Manchester Arena bomber but changed his plea on the second day of the trial.
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Now aged 19, he pleaded guilty to possessing two videos and one document useful for terrorism. Three other charges were ordered to lie on file.
The judge, Simon Mayo KC, told him: “These are very serious offences and they will require appropriate punishment but I will take into account everything I read and am told about you before I decide what type and how long that sentence should be.”
The judge ordered a pre-sentence report and he will be sentenced in May.
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Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan, head of operations for Counter-Terrorism Policing London, said: “This case is yet another example of a growing and concerning trend of young people being drawn into extremist, violent and terrorist ideologies – principally from what they are exposed to and consuming online.
“Rahman’s actions towards his victims – two of whom were teenaged girls – were completely unacceptable and I want to praise their incredible courage and resilience throughout this whole ordeal.”
