‘Lone wolf terrorist’ talked down from hospital bomb plot by hero patient

A hospital patient stopped an allegedly ‘self-radicalised, lone wolf terrorist’ who planned to ‘kill as many nurses as possible’ in a bomb and knife attack.

Mohammad Farooq, 28, was arrested with a pressure cooker outside the Gledhow Wing of St James’s Hospital in Leeds, in the early hours of January 20.

He is accused of seeking ‘his own martyrdom’ with a ‘murderous terrorist attack’, detonating the bomb before killing as many people as possible with knives, prosecutors said.

Farooq, having immersed himself in ‘extremist Islamic ideology’, then planned to use an imitation firearm to incite police to shoot him dead, a jury heard.

But the hospital, where he worked as a clinical support worker, was not his initial target, Jonathan Sandiford KC said at the trial’s opening on Monday.

RAF Menwith Hill, a North Yorkshire base used by the United States was his ‘plan A’, the prosecutor said.

The base has been designated a target by the Islamic State because it’s believed it was used to co-ordinate drone strikes against terrorists, the prosecutor said.

Movements on his mobile phone and car revealed Farooq had visited the area at least twice in the 10 days before his arrest, the jury heard.

But ‘when he thought that was not possible his ‘plan B’ was to attack St James Hospital, a softer and less well-protected target than a military base’, Mr Sandiford said.

He had already been waging a poison pen campaign against several former colleagues there who he had a grievance against, Sheffield Crown Court jurors were told.

This allegedly provided a ‘secondary motive’ for the attack.

However, the attack was stopped when ‘two pieces of good fortune intervened’. Mr Sandiford said.

For nearly an hour, no one saw the bomb threat Farooq texted to an off-duty nurse in order to lure people to the carpark where he waited with the bomb.

This meant the full-scale evacuation he hoped for did not happen.

After leaving, he returned with a new plan to detonate the device in a hospital café during a shift change, ‘killing as many nurses as possible’, the prosecutor said.

But Nathan Newby, a patient smoking a cigarette outside the hospital ‘noticed the defendant’ and stopped him in his tracks, Mr Sandiford said.

He told the court: ‘Mr Newby realised something was amiss and began to talk to him instead of walking away.

‘That simple act of kindness almost certainly saved many lives that night because, as the defendant was later to tell the police officers who arrested him, Mr Newby succeeded in “talking him down”.’

After the defendant told Mr Newby about the plot to ‘kill as many nurses as possible’, Mr Sandiford said, ‘Mr Newby stayed with the defendant, keeping him engaged and calm.’

He said: ‘Mr Newby also persuaded the defendant to move away from the main entrance to a seating area so that the IED was as far away from the building as it was possible to go.’

Farooq then handed his phone to Mr Newby so he could call the police, the jury was told.

Officers then arrested the defendant, finding the ‘viable’ pressure cooker bomb with just 10 kilograms of low explosive.

Farooq also had, with him or in his car, two knives, black tape and a blank-firing imitation firearm.

Investigators found Farooq had been self-radicalised by accessing extremist material and propaganda online.

Mr Sandiford said: ‘That consisted mainly of material published by Islamic State, al Qaida, videos on TikTok and lectures by Anwar Al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American radical preacher.’

The court heard he had also obtained bomb-making instructions in a magazine published by al Qaida to encourage lone wolf terrorist attacks against the west.

Farooq has admitted firearms offences, possessing an explosive substance with intent, and having a document likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism, the court heard.

But he denies preparing acts of terrorism.

Mr Sandiford said the defendant admits intending to attack St James Hospital but denies any intention to attack Menwith Hill.

The trial continues.

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