Would what he was filmed doing be enough for a custodial sentence? Or are we talking internment for likely wronguns?
I can't imagine being seen praying in front of an ISIS flag is enough to prosecute someone. Unless he was known to be a member of a banned organisation, or there was proof that he was (at that time) enouraging, inciting or supporting a terrorist act.
There were plenty of people who were openly supportive of the IRA in general. It didn't make them all subject to arrest.
(Although there was internment for those suspected of involvement. And that worked well, didn't it! We should never live in a society where we imprison people "just in case").
Appearing on TV in that manner should however have been enough to flag him to the attention of the authorities as someone with the potential to be radicalised (or already radicalised and at risk of participating in terrorist activity). And maybe he
was tracked by the authorities but as we all know, resources only stretch so far and decisions have to be taken as to where the higher priorities lie. Maybe something even more horrific was stopped by resources being focused elsewhere (and in saying that I am not in any way meaning to trivialise what happened on Saturday). Sufficient funding of the relevant agencies to track and intercept these people is more critical than it has ever been. But equally, funding and support is needed for those organisations that are trying to deal with these young people before things go too far, or trying to integrate them back into society after they have been de-radicalised, if there is such a word.
Cressida dingdong said this morning that on average they arrest one person everyday in connection with terrorist offences. There is so much that we never hear of.
As the saying goes, we have to be lucky all of the time, the terrorist only has to be lucky once.
