The ‘terrorist house’ case received a lot of publicity, when a 10-year-old Muslim boy was tasked to make up a fictional character in English and his response resulted in a home visit by counter-terrorism police.
To help develop the fictional character the teacher had asked the children to respond to some specific questions about the character, the following two are significant.
R named his piece ‘Cheeky Charlie’ and responded in the following way:
- What makes you feel gloomy or down-in-the-dumps? I hate it when my uncle hits me.
- What sort of place do you live in? I live in a terrorist house with my uncle.
The next day a social worker and police officer visited his home, where after questioning it transpired that R had watched a movie where the uncle hits the boy; he had understood the prompts as being posed about the fictional character, not himself.
Nonetheless, the police asked about terrorism and confiscated R’s laptop.
They also asked if the mosque is connected to terrorism, and the parents report that the line of questioning was very targeted towards terrorism.
A full interview with R and a family member appeared on a BBC interview.
