Leeds terrorist hospital worker ready to ‘kill as many nurses as possible’ with bomb found guilty

From Leeds Live

Mohammad Farooq, 28, has been standing trial at Sheffield Crown Court, where he was unanimously found guilty of the single charge on Tuesday. He had previously 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.

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

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

Farooq was a clinical support worker at the hospital and his “secondary motive” for choosing it as a target was that he had a grievance against several of his former colleagues and had been conducting a poison pen campaign against them, jurors were told. He later told police his device was intended to be twice as powerful as that used by the Boston Marathon bombers in 2013.

An investigation found Farooq had become self-radicalised by accessing extremist material and propaganda online.

“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,” Mr Sandiford said.

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. The prosecutor said RAF Menwith Hill had been designated as a target by so-called Islamic State because it was believed the base had been used to co-ordinate drone strikes against terrorists.

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