‘Lone wolf terrorist’ had deliberate to assault an RAF base, court docket instructed

 A ‘lone wolf terrorist’ who was talked out of detonating a bomb outside a hospital by a patient had initially planned to attack an RAF base, a court has heard. 

Mohammad Farooq, 28, was arrested with a pressure cooker bomb outside the Gledhow Wing of St James’s Hospital in Leeds, in January 2023. 

Prosecutors say Farooq planned to ‘seek his own martyrdom’ through a ‘murderous terrorist attack’ by detonating the bomb, then killing as many people as possible with knives before using an imitation firearm to incite police to shoot him dead. 

Opening the trial today, 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. 

Mr Sandiford told the court that when Farooq thought that attack was not possible his ‘plan B’ was to attack St James Hospital, where he had also worked as a clinical support worker. 

Mohammad Farooq (court artist drawing), 28, was arrested with a pressure cooker bomb outside the Gledhow Wing of St James’s Hospital in Leeds, in January 2023. His ‘plan A’ had been to attack RAF Menwith Hill, which is a base in North Yorkshire used by the United States

RAF Menwith Hill, near Harrogate.  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 (stock image) 

St James’s Hospital in Leeds, West Yorkshire, following Farooq attempted attack. Patient Nathan Newby was outside having a smoke when he noticed Farooq and ‘realised something was amiss’

Sheffield Crown Court were told that a ‘secondary motive’ for choosing the hospital as a target was that Farooq had a grievance against several of his former colleagues and had been conducting a poison pen campaign against them.

Mr Sandiford said ‘two pieces of good fortune intervened’ to stop the 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 with the bomb 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, ‘killing as many nurses as possible’.

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 the defendant told Mr Newby about his plan to take the bomb into 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 it was possible to go.’

Jurors heard Farooq then handed his phone over to Mr Newby to ring the police.

The defendant was arrested by officers who 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.

Sheffield Crown Court (pictured) were told that a ‘secondary motive’ for choosing the hospital as a target was that Farooq had a grievance against several of his former colleagues and had been conducting a poison pen campaign against them (stock image) 

An investigation found Farooq had become 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.

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.

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

The court heard 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.

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.