A would-be suicide bomber who planned to ‘kill as many nurses as possible’ in pressure cooked explosion has been jailed.
Mohammad Farooq brought a homemade pressure cooker bomb to St James’s Hospital in Leeds in January 2023. The bomb was designed similar to those used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack but contained double the amount of explosives.
During the sentencing at Sheffield Crown Court, Mrs. Justice Cheema-Grubb commended Nathan Newby for his actions. Nathan, a patient, was able to convince Mohammad Farooq not to detonate the bomb.
The judge described Nathan as an ordinary yet remarkable individual. She acknowledged his kindness and decency on January 20, 2023, for preventing a potential tragedy in a maternity ward of a major hospital in the UK.
She said Mr Newby was a ‘modest and gentle man whose evidence was among the most remarkable this court has ever heard’.
Mohammad Farooq, a ‘lone wolf’ Islamic terrorist who plotted to set off a pressure cooker bomb at the hospital where he worked, is facing years in jail
The pressure cooker Farooq had planned to use to attack the hospital where he worked
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Farooq, now 29, targeted the hospital as his ‘Plan B’ after first travelling to the American base at RAF Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire, but failing to get in due to the high security.
The judge said of Mr Newby: ‘He’s an extraordinary, ordinary man whose decency and kindness on January 20 2023 prevented an atrocity in a maternity wing of a major British hospital.’
She said Mr Newby is a ‘modest and gentle man whose evidence was among the most remarkable this court has ever heard’.
Jurors were told Farooq then switched to the ‘softer and less well-protected target’ of St James’s Hospital in the early hours of January 20 last year.
The defendant was a clinical support worker at the hospital and his ‘secondary motive’ for choosing it was that he had a grievance against several of his former colleagues and had been conducting a poison pen campaign against them, the court heard.
Farooq denied preparing terrorist acts, with defence counsel Gul Nawaz Hussain KC telling jurors Farooq was not an extremist but a ‘troubled man’ who was motivated by ‘deep rooted anger and grievance’ towards his colleagues.
On Tuesday a jury convicted him of the offence after deliberating for less than two hours.
Opening the case to jurors in June, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said Farooq’s plan was to detonate the bomb, then kill as many people as possible with knives before using an imitation firearm to incite police to shoot him dead.
Mr Sandiford said ‘two pieces of good fortune intervened’ to stop the planned attack that day.
The first was that a bomb threat he sent in a text to an off-duty nurse in order to lure people to the car park where he was waiting was not seen for almost an hour, and the full-scale evacuation he had hoped for did not happen.
The prosecutor said Farooq left but returned shortly afterwards with a new plan to wait in a hospital cafe for a staff shift change and detonate his device.
Farooq pictured during his reconnaissance mission hours before the arrest
An imitation firearm designed to provoke police into shooting Farooq dead
Blank ammunition found at the time of the Islamic terrorist’s arrest
Police retrieved a knife after arresting Farooq. He had planned to kill as many people as possible with knives before using an imitation firearm to incite police to shoot him dead
But Mr Sandiford told the court that ‘luck intervened again’ because a patient, Nathan Newby, was standing outside the hospital having a cigarette and ‘noticed the defendant’.
He said: ‘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’.’
Mr Sandiford said Farooq told Mr Newby about his grievances towards his colleagues and his plan to take the bomb into the hospital and ‘kill as many nurses as possible’.
Mr Newby stayed with the defendant and eventually persuaded him to move away from the building, and hand over his phone to call the police.
Officers who arrested Farooq found the ‘viable’ pressure cooker bomb had just under 10 kilograms of low explosive. He also had, with him or in his car, two knives, black tape and a blank firing, imitation firearm.
An investigation found he had become self-radicalised through accessing extremist material online, and had obtained bomb-making instructions in a magazine published by Al Qaeda to encourage lone wolf terrorist attacks against the West.
Movements of Farooq’s mobile phone and car showed he made at least two visits to the area of Menwith Hill in the 10 days leading up to his arrest, jurors were told.
Mr Sandiford said the base had been designated as a target by IS because it was believed it had been used to co-ordinate drone strikes against terrorists.
Farooq 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.
Bethan David, head of the CPS Counter Terrorism Division, said: ‘Farooq is an extremely dangerous individual who amassed a significant amount of practical and theoretical information that enabled him to produce a viable explosive device.
Chilling footage shows Farooq in the foyer of St James’s Hospital, Leeds
A bag pictured near a bench outside the hospital. Police recovered Farooq’s bag shortly after arresting him
A knife recovered at the time of the ‘lone wolf’ terrorist’s arrest
The pressure cooker bomb, intended to be twice as strong as the device used in the 2013 Boston Marathon, pictured at the scene
‘He then took that homemade explosive device to a hospital where he worked with the intention to cause serious harm. Examination of his electronic devices revealed a hatred towards his colleagues at work and those he considered non-believers.
‘It is clear from his internet searches that he was also conducting extensive research of RAF Menwith Hill, with a view to launching a potential attack.
‘The extremist views Farooq holds are a threat to our society, and I am pleased the jury found him guilty of his crimes.’
