Devon man jailed for terrorism offences

A 20-year-old man from Devon, has  been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for terrorism offences.

Tobias Gleed, who was officially of no fixed abode but from East Devon, was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court, after being found guilty of:

• four offences of possession of a document of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism contrary to section 58 (1) (b) of the Terrorism Act 2000;
• two offences of distributing terrorist publications contrary to section 2 (2) (e) of the Terrorism Act 2006;
• two offences of providing a service to others that enabled them to obtain, read or listen to a terrorist publication, contrary to section 2 (2) (d) of the Terrorism Act 2006.

Gleed was arrested in September 2022 as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South West. As part of the investigation, officers seized his digital devices which contained publications of an extreme right wing terrorist nature. Investigators established that this was evidence of his interest in extreme content which he promoted and distributed to others online through messaging applications.

He was sentenced to five years and six months in prison and will serve two-thirds of it with a further year on licence. He was also given a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order to be served on release.

Head of CTPSW, Detective Superintendent Sarah Robbins said: “Gleed represents a threat to our communities and the impact of his offences, including the influence of the content he shared, cannot be underestimated. Such offences have a potentially dangerous, radicalising effect and it’s right he’s been convicted for his activity.”  am thankful that, through the work of our unit, the evidence against Gleed has resulted in this outcome.”

* If you see or hear something unusual or suspicious and think someone may be engaging in terrorist activity or beginning to follow the wrong path, please do trust your instincts and act by reporting it to us.

Reporting won’t ruin lives, but it could save them. You can do this in in confidence at gov.uk/ACT. Action Counters Terrorism.  

Remember, in an emergency, always dial 999.