The teen engaged in “clearly dangerous experimentation” with household chemicals, defence barrister Laura Reece told the jury on Monday during her closing statement.

The central issue at trial was the teen’s state of mind or intention at the time of these acts, Reece said.

“He was a troubled kid. He was experimenting not only with explosives but with ideas and beliefs,” she said.

“He was seeking out extremist material from wildly contradictory sources from the dark corners of the internet.”

The boy was about to turn 16 when he texted a school friend in July 2024 about bombing the Liberal party over its support for nuclear power and filmed himself testing incendiary devices in his back yard, the jury had heard.

The teenager was serious when he wrote of copying US domestic terrorists like Ted Kaczynski, the anti-technology “Unabomber”, and Timothy McVeigh, who killed 167 people with a truck bomb in Oklahoma City, crown prosecutor Sally Flynn told the jury.

“Technology has left a very clear indication of his acts and a very clear indication of his thoughts,” she said.

“There is a very powerful body of evidence in that case that comes directly from the defendant. It’s his messages that are relied upon, his web searches and the documents he downloaded.”

Yeah, we're waaaaaay past edgy joke territory, here. We're at least planning phase - possibly at conspiracy to involve likeminded individuals phase. An edgy joke is made once or twice. It doesn't involve Internet research into terrorists followed by experimentation and filming oneself making and testing IEDs.

Oh, there can and should be consequences for some 'edgy jokes' too.

'it was a prank, bro!' is also not a defence.