Sydney teenager pleads guilty to plotting terrorist attack on ANZAC Day

A Sydney teenager was arrested and charged with one count of planning a terrorist attack on April 24, one day before hundreds of thousands of Australians gathered at ceremonies across the country to mark ANZAC Day.

A Sydney teenager pleaded guilty on Friday to plotting a terrorist attack on an Australian Veteran’s Day ceremony last year.

Australian defence personnel march during the annual ANZAC Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day parade in central Sydney. (Reuters File Photo)

The then 16-year-old was arrested and charged with one count of planning a terrorist attack on April 24, one day before hundreds of thousands of Australians gathered at ceremonies across the country to mark ANZAC Day. The annual holiday commemorates the April 25, 1915, Gallipoli landings in Turkey — the first major military action fought by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I.

The youth, who cannot be identified because of his age, pleaded guilty in Parramatta Children’s Court in western Sydney to planning a terrorist act by trying to source a gun or a bomb-making manual. He will remain in custody until the case returns to court on April 21. He faces a potential sentence of life in prison.

Police also said they thwarted a planned attack on an ANZAC Day ceremony in 2015. Police in Melbourne arrested five teenagers on suspicion of plotting an Islamic State group-inspired attack intended to coincide with the city’s ANZAC service.