A teenager who allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in a Sydney church traveled up to 90 minutes from his home to allegedly carry out the horrific attack.
The 16-year-old is expected to appear in court on Friday while in hospital custody after being charged with committing a terrorist act under Commonwealth law.
Police allege the teenager stabbed the 53-year-old bishop six times and attacked another priest during a livestreamed service at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley on Monday.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said items, including electronic devices, were seized from the teenager’s home on Tuesday before investigators spoke to the boy.
“Yesterday (Thursday) investigators went to a medical center to interview the alleged criminal, where he was accused of committing a terrorist act,” he said.
‘We allege that the act committed meets the definition (of terrorism) for the reasons set out in a statement of effects, but I will not go into those facts here today.
“I want to emphasize that our work is not finished… We focus on crime, not countries, we investigate radicalization and not religion.”
Kershaw said investigators were still reviewing electronic material allegedly seized from the boy’s home.
“As you probably know, people have thousands and thousands of videos and images that they store and also what we find on social media,” he said.
The 16-year-old is expected to appear in court Friday while in hospital custody after being charged with committing a terrorist act, Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.
“The joint counterterrorism team will review all of that material forensically to establish what the other avenues of investigation are, but also the evidence that will be presented for the charge.”
Kershaw said the AFP was “really encouraging big companies to do the right thing” after Facebook was ordered to remove content linked to the alleged attack.
“They know that this goes through their systems and servers, and they need to do the right thing and remove that material from the Internet,” he said.
For her part, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb condemned the “misinformation being spread on social media” and said social media sites “have a role to play.”
“I think leading a social media platform should come with a lot of social and corporate responsibility,” he said.
“I think to have images like that online, they need to be deleted immediately and not left there.”
The first man arrested over the alleged riot, Dani Mansour (pictured), 19, was told in court on Thursday he faced allegations he filmed himself kicking two police cars.
Webb could not provide details of the allegations but said police would allege the teenager traveled up to 90 minutes from his home to carry out the attack.
The teenager, who cannot be identified, was restrained by parishioners and later taken to hospital, where he remains after cutting his finger.
The teen’s arrest sparked a violent confrontation between police, during which rioters allegedly vandalized patrol cars and threw bricks and rocks at officers.
The first man arrested over the alleged riot, Dani Mansour, 19, was told in court on Thursday that he faced accusations that he filmed himself kicking two police cars.
Magistrate Aaron Tang granted the Mt Druitt barber strict probation and ordered Mr Mansour not to contact any of the 2,000 rioters.