Distressed boy's knife attack on chaplain fuelled by online radicalisation

Defence Forces chaplain, Fr Paul Murphy, leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice after giving a victim impact statement in the sentence hearing of the 17-year-old boy accused of stabbing him last year. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Court evidence of an Islamist-inspired knife attack by an Irish boy on a military chaplain indicate that distressing events in his life combined with online radicalisation fuelled by violent jihadist videos and propaganda.

The youth had a lot of content on his devices and notebooks about the Islamic State terror group, including beheadings.