Engineer cleared of terror plot 'likely autistic'

A former Defence employee acquitted of plotting a terror attack on an electrical substation was a socially isolated introvert who was likely a high-functioning autistic person, an Adelaide court has been told.

In June, a Supreme Court jury found Artem Vasilyev, 27, not guilty of committing other acts done in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act, between July 2020 and September 2021.

He pleaded guilty to 22 offences under the Firearms Act, related to 18 Ruger 10/22 charger receivers and a 3D-printed gun known as an FGC-9, which were seized by police from his home in the western Adelaide suburb of Findon in 2021.

Commonwealth prosecutors told Vasilyev's trial on the terror charge that police found large volumes of material on his computers that were "unerringly aligned with white nationalist racist extremism and the violent pursuit of that political viewpoint".

During sentencing submissions on Tuesday, Vasilyev's barrister Scott Henchcliffe KC said his client was not intending to use or sell the weapons, and had manufactured some of them out of "intellectual curiosity".

"He subsequently has really appreciated the gravity of what he was doing and the danger it potentially creates for the community," he said.

Vasilyev has little to no social life, devoting himself to an activity that had "dislocated" his life, and his mother had described him as an introvert, he said.

"When he was asked why he should not be viewed as a threat to Australia national security, he answered in a very personal way: 'I don't want to distress my mum after everything I've put her through, and I want to start a new life when I get out, my future has already been taken away from me once'," Mr Henchcliffe said.

He said Vasilyev's three years and one month in custody had been a "disturbing experience" and he should be given a sentence that allowed him to be immediately eligible for parole.

In a report to the court, forensic psychologist Loraine Lim found Vasilyev was likely to be a "high-functioning autistic person" with undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder and he was a low risk of committing violence, firearms and extremist offences in the future.

Justice Sandi McDonald said that given Vasilyev's background and life achievements, "the risk is potentially increased because when he's released, he won't have the career prospects he once had, he'll be starting right back from square one".

"He's going to need some significant supports in place to make sure that risk isn't realised," she said.

Justice McDonald had ordered a second report from Dr Lim because her first report on Vasilyev was "completely divorced" from the white supremacist materials in his possession.

"Now that I've got a second report, it really does put all that into proper context," she said.

The former Department of Defence employee and electronics engineer had been accused of planning a terror attack on the Cherry Gardens electrical substation in the Adelaide hills.

Justice McDonald noted that Vasilyev was acquitted of the terror charge on "a very particular basis".

"I think I even said to the jury 'you might think he was about to do all sorts of horrible things but absent finding that it was a plan in relation to the Cherry Gardens substation, you have to find him not guilty'," she said.

Vasilyev will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.