The Schoolgirl Terrorist? on C4: What happened to Christopher Cook and where is Rhianan Rudd's children's home Bluebell House
Rhianan was the youngest terror suspect in BritainRhianan Rudd is at the centre of tragic documentary The Schoolgirl Terrorist? – but what happened to her online ‘friend’ Christopher Cook.
Rhianan’s mum Emily Carter and brother Brandon lay bare the shocking tale of the teenager, who was radicalised online.
By just 15 years old, she as gouging a Nazi swastika into her forehead. She even told her mum that she was going to make a bomb.
Rhianan bragged to her horrified and frightened friends that she was going to blow up a synagog after developing a hatred for Jewish people.
Documentary viewers will learn how Rhianan had been racialised by her mum’s former right-wing extremist boyfriend, Dax Mallaburn.
She had also spent 15 hours a day in lockdown talking to another US extremist called Christopher Cook.
Rhianan, who was autistic, was moved into a children’s home called Bluebell House. But tragically, she later took her own life.
Both Bluebell House and Cook feature heavily in Channel 4’s The Schoolgirl Terrorist?, but what else to we know about them both?
What happened to Christopher Cook in The Schoolgirl Terrorist?
Emily is first to explain Rhianan’s contact with Christopher Cook in The Schoolgirl Terrorist?. She says she gave her daughter a computer during lockdown. Shortly after, Rhianan began talking about a “Chris”.
“One day she came down and she went, ‘Oh, my friend Chris… from school,” Emily recalls. “‘We’ve been doing this history thing on Germany’. And she became obsessed with Germany. She did talk to Chris a lot.”
Following Rhianan’s death, it emerged the FBI had arrested Cook for neo-Nazi offences in the US. His digital devices were searched and it was found Rhianan had also been “sexually exploited” by Cook.
“He groomed Rhianan to the point where she had sent him sexual videos of herself nude,” Emily says.
Cook was arrested in August 2020. FBI agents raided both his and the homes of two other men. They discovered weapons and Nazi and white supremacist material.
This was around the time Rhianan had been speaking to Cook online.
In 2023, Cook and two other men pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges. They had been plotting to attack a power grid “in furtherance of white supremacist ideology.”
Cook was sentenced to 92 months in prison. This equates to just over seven and a half years.
At sentencing, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio said: “As a society, we must be vigilant against online radicalization, which is a powerful tool used by extremists to recruit both juveniles and adults.”
Cook is still in jail in America. The makers The Schoolgirl Terrorist? contacted him for comment, but he did not respond.
Where is Bluebell House where Rhianan Rudd lived?
Rhianan was arrested in 2020. Five months later, she broke her bail conditions and was remanded in the children’s care home Bluebell House.
The charges against Rhianan were dropped in January 2022 after she was officially recognised as a victim of grooming and exploitation.
But she remained living at Bluebell House through her own choice. Rhianan’s brother says she was given “a lot more money than my mum could her” while there. The money was in exchange for doing house chores.
So where is Bluebell House?
Bluebell House is a residential home located in Nottingham. Rhianan’s brother recalls in The Schoolgirl Terrorist?: “Bluebell House was sold to us as a quasi secure unit where Rhianan would be safe.”
The home is equipped to house four females. It states online: “Providing Residential care for children and young people up to the age of 18 years, with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, since 2013.”
Located on the edge of Sherwood Forest, residents also have access to an onsite education facility.
“The team work hard to help the young people overcome the difficulties that they face on a day to day basis, supporting them through understanding what drives their negative emotions and behaviours,” the website states.
“They are taught positive coping strategies and encouraged to make positive steps towards their next step in life.”
When did Rhianan Rudd die?
Rhianan began having de-radicalisation sessions with the Government’s Prevent service in February 2022. But she found it very difficult.
Three months later, Rhianan visited Emily and Brandon at the family home.
Emily recalls: “As she was leaving, she came over and hugged me. I looked at her and thought, ‘This is strange. She never hugged me in this way’. She said, ‘I love you mum, I’ll see you soon.’
“It played on my mind the whole night.”
Rhianan had another Prevent session the following day. Shortly after, police knocked on Emily’s door and confirmed she was dead. She had died from hanging.
Bluebell House told producers of The Schoolgirl Terrorist?: “Any reassurances provided to the gamily by staff at Bluebell House reflected the genuine, reasonable and professionally sound assessment shared by every professional across every agency involved in Rhianan’s care at that time.”
A Counter Terrorism Policing spokesperson added: “Rhianan’s tragic death has informed multiple new strategies in our approach to young people and mental health.”
