Plymouth shooter Jake Davison conducted online searches for incel serial killers and counter-terror police in the UK days before his massacre, a watchdog has revealed.
On 12 August 2021, Davison murdered his mother before roaming the streets with a pump-action shotgun and killing a three-year-old girl, her father and two other passers-by.
An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the 22-year-old had “posted prolifically” about incel culture on social media website Reddit.
“It is possible that Davison may have started planning the shooting during his final days, as he searched online for information about anti-terror policing in the UK, incel serial killers, and instructions on reloading firearms,” a report published on Monday said.
“However, despite engaging in a fairly heated argument on Reddit days beforehand, he did not mention any plans or issue any direct threats online.”
The report, published after an inquest jury delivered their verdicts on his victims’ deaths, said Davison “appeared to identify with incel spree killers” in a video recorded in April 2021.
But the watchdog said the footage was not uploaded to his YouTube channel and that in public postings, he did not express an explicit desire to harm anyone and “often supported people who wished to distance themselves from the incel community”.
“He also discussed his poor mental health, disillusionment with life and relationships, and dislike of his mother on Reddit and YouTube,” the report added.
“In the weeks leading up to the shooting, he posted three videos on YouTube in which he voiced beliefs commonly held by the incel community, although he also stated that he did not ‘clarify’ [sic] himself as an incel.”
Official statistics released last month showed a rising number of suspected incels are being referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme, with police saying the movement is not “currently considered a terrorist ideology” but has the “ability to inspire terrible acts of violence”.
A total of 77 suspected incels were referred to Prevent in 2021-22, with 23 of those going on to receive ideological mentoring, and many are believed to be young men and boys with vulnerabilities including mental health issues and autism.
Davison’s rampage, which was the UK’s worst mass shooting in over a decade, was not declared a terror attack because they believed that Davison was primarily driven by mental health issues and personal grievances, rather than a “political, religious, racial or ideological cause” that would meet the UK’s legal definition of terrorism.
Speaking at a press conference last week, the head of national counter-terrorism policing defended the decision but said officers were responding to a “small but increasing number of references to incel culture” in their cases.
Assistant commissioner Matt Jukes added: “Policing has got to learn lessons from [the Plymouth shooting], whether it’s in controlling firearms and licensing, or our understanding of incel behaviour. This is an international conversation.”
The incel movement has also been linked to several mass shootings in the US and Canada.
Short for “involuntary celibate”, the term describes a loose online movement for men who believe they are unable to have romantic or sexual relationships with women.
An upcoming inquest into Davison’s death will further scrutiny his ideology and the extent to which it affected his actions, and proceedings have already revealed that he had been reported to the Prevent counter-terror programme by his mother.
Separate inquests into his victims’ deaths found that Davison was wrongly allowed to legally hold a shotgun because of a series of “catastrophic” failings in national training and guidance, and local practice.
Luke Pollard, the MP who represents the area where the shooting took place, previously told The Independent the shooting showed the need for a “coherent strategy” to tackle incel culture.
He said he understood why the Plymouth shooting was not officially defined as terrorism but warned: “[Inceldom] has to fit somewhere else and it doesn’t fit anywhere else at the moment.
“It’s happening in all our communities behind closed bedroom doors on toxic parts of the internet.
“There is nothing Devon-specific about that tragedy, it could have happened anywhere round the country. Because of that, it still could again.”
