A 14-year-old schoolboy from Derbyshire set up a far-right chat group which encouraged fellow teenagers to launch terrorist attacks, a court has heard.

The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, set up and managed the channel on messaging app Telegram.

The channel was said to be of an extreme right-wing and “openly racist nature” and the youth boasted online that his criminal record would be cleared when he reached 18.

He vetted like-minded individuals before allowing them entry to private chat groups where there was discussion about “doing something” against ethnic minorities and talk about weapons, prosecutors said.

He downloaded a “leaderboard” of far-right killers and told members of one far-right group that he wanted to go down to his local skatepark and launch an attack.

Now aged 15, the youth admitted at Westminster Youth Court one offence of encouragement of terrorism, one of dissemination of a terrorist publication and one offence of possessing information useful for terrorism.

In one online boast, he claimed that he had been arrested three times and added: “Luckily my record will get clear when I’m 18.”

After setting up the channel on 5 August last year, he used a Union Jack as its icon, with a skull and two rifles superimposed on to it, building up a core of 38 subscribers, prosecutor Alistair Richardson told the court.

On 18 August, messages were posted on the channel which specified that people who wished to join would be vetted, and that once an individual had joined “you will speak with our members and our commanders”.

A 16-year-old boy from Kent was among the members of the group.

The younger youth responded to his arrest by laughing and on arrival at the police station said: “Basically I’m far-right and you guys don’t like it.”

He is said to suffer from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, and has a previous conviction for making a bomb threat to a mosque for which he was given a referral order.

He appeared, wearing a Nike t-shirt, on video link from custody and chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said he should expect a custodial sentence.

The 16-year-old, who is on bail, appeared in court in a suit and tie, accompanied by his mother, to enter his guilty plea.

He admitted disseminating a terrorist publication by sending an electronic link in August last year.

Both youths will be sentenced in August.

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