A 17-year-old who identified local synagogues on a list of potential targets has been sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, searched online for shuls in the Durham area to target and wrote a manifesto which included a section “areas to attack”.

The boy was convicted in November of six terror offences and sentenced at at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday.

Handwritten documents recovered from the boy’s bedroom contained a to-do list that included “shed empathy”.

In October 2018, he wrote that he hoped to “record events from now all the way to the inevitable race war”, and in another entry wrote that Adolf Hitler was “a brave man to say the least”.

Areas that he listed as “worth attacking” included a passport office – as they were “responsible for immigration” – and banks – for “obvious reasons”.

Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, who heads Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: "This has been a protracted and challenging investigation not least due to the age of the subject.

"The decision to investigate, arrest and prosecute a young person is never an easy one; however we will always take necessary and proportionate action to keep our communities safe.

“Cases such as this highlight the dangers our young people face today online. The negative influence and powerful manipulation that takes place by those who seek to radicalise them cannot be underestimated."

He added: "We want to empower all communities to speak out and counter poisonous, hateful narrative to help keep our children and those who are vulnerable safe.

“We need to know and understand what content our young people are reading and engaging with to help to protect them from hate and toxic rhetoric and ideologies."