Terrorist hospital employee set to ‘kill as many nurses as possible’ in bomb plot found guilty

A man has been found guilty of plotting to bomb a Leeds hospital with the hope of “killing as many nurses as possible”.

Mohammad Farooq, 28, went on trial at Sheffield Crown Court and was unanimously found guilty of a single charge of preparing an act of terrorism today (July 2).

He previously admitted firearms offences, possessing an explosive substance with intent and possessing a document likely to be of use to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism, LeedsLive reports.

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During the trial, jurors heard that Farooq had planned to “seek his own martyrdom” in a “murderous terrorist attack” by detonating the bomb at St James’s Hospital, then killing as many people as possible with knives before using an imitation gun fire to incite. the police to shoot him dead.

Opening the trial last month, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said Farooq had immersed himself in “extremist Islamic ideology” and that his “plan A” was to attack RAF Menwith Hill, which is a North Yorkshire base used by the United States .

“When he thought that was not possible, ‘plan B’ was to attack St James’s Hospital, a softer and less well-protected target than a military base,” Sandiford said.

Farooq was a clinical support worker at the hospital and the “secondary reason” for targeting him was that he had a grievance against several of his former colleagues and had run a campaign against them, jurors were told. He later told police that his device was supposed to be twice as powerful as the one used by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers.

Sandiford said “two pieces of luck intervened” to stop the attack that day. The first was that a bomb threat he texted an off-duty nurse to lure people to the parking lot where he was waiting with the bomb had not been seen for nearly an hour, and the large-scale evacuation he had it. hopefully it didn’t happen.

The prosecutor told the court that Farooq left but returned shortly afterwards with a new plan to wait in a hospital cafe for staff to change shifts and detonate the device, “killing as many nurses as possible”. But Mr Sandiford told the court that “luck intervened again” as a patient, Nathan Newby, was standing outside the hospital having a cigarette and “spotted the defendant”.

He said: “Mr Newby realized something was wrong and started talking to him instead of walking away. That simple act of kindness almost certainly saved many lives that night because, as the defendant would later tell the arresting police officers, Mr. Newby was able to “challenge” him.

Sandiford said the defendant told Mr Newby of his plan to take the bomb to the hospital and “kill as many nurses as possible”. He said: “Mr Newby stayed with the defendant, keeping him engaged and calm.

“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 possible.”

Jurors heard Farooq then hand the phone to Mr Newby to call the police. The defendant was arrested by police who found the “viable” pressure cooker bomb to have just under 10 kilograms of low explosive. He also had, on him or in the car, two knives, black tape and an imitation white-firing firearm.

An investigation found that Farooq self-radicalized by accessing extremist materials and online propaganda.

“This consisted mainly of material published by the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, TikTok videos and lectures by Anwar Al-Awlaki, the radical Yemeni-American preacher,” Sandiford said.

The court heard he also obtained bomb-making instructions in a magazine published by Al Qaeda to encourage lone wolf terror attacks against the West. The prosecutor said RAF Menwith Hill was designated as a target by so-called Islamic State because the base was believed to be used to coordinate drone strikes against terrorists.

Movements of the defendant’s mobile phone and car showed he had made at least two visits to the Menwith Hill township in the 10 days leading up to his arrest, jurors were told.

Prosecutors said material found on Farooq’s phone suggested he “may have been susceptible to radicalising messages because he had a low sense of self-esteem and felt unwanted, worthless and alone”.

Jurors retired to deliberate their verdict around 12pm on Tuesday and returned shortly before 3pm. Farooq will be sentenced at a later date.