Student nurse who planned Leeds hospital terror bomb jailed
A student nurse who plotted to bomb a hospital and an RAF base has been jailed for life.Mohammad Farooq planned to detonate an explosive at St James's Hospital in Leeds in January 2023, after earlier plotting to target RAF Menwith Hill near Harrogate.Farooq, 29, of Hetton Road in Leeds, was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court of preparing acts of terrorism, with jurors hearing he wanted to "kill as many nurses as possible" by detonating a pressure cooker bomb.At sentencing on Friday, Farooq was jailed for life with a minimum term of 37 years.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said "nearly 10kg of explosives" had been put inside the pressure cooker.She said: "You were disillusioned in your own life, both personally and professionally, having failed to achieve the standard of work to become a nurse."Farooq, who was described as being on the autism spectrum by his defence team, had watched "anti-West propaganda" on Tiktok, downloading terrorist handbooks, including one on how to make a bomb, the court heard.Farooq was employed by the hospital at the time as a nursing assistant.He sent a text to a nurse who he thought was working that night telling her there was a bomb on the ward. This was done not to warn staff and patients, but to trigger an evacuation where Farooq could kill more people, the court heard.He wanted to "detonate the bomb when the canteen was full of nurses and walk out", the judge added.
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