A “lone-wolf terrorist” who plotted to blow up a hospital and a RAF base near Harrogate had been experimenting with firework gunpowder and fertiliser inside his garage, a jury was told.

Mohammad Farooq, 28, a clinical support worker, planned to carry out an Islamist terror attack with a homemade bomb at RAF Menwith Hill and St James’s Hospital in Leeds but was stopped in his tracks by hero patient Nathan Newby, Sheffield Crown Court heard. 

A subsequent police search of Farooq’s home in Leeds revealed a plethora of items which the prosecution claims were linked to his alleged plot to blow up the US spy and radar base near Harrogate and the hospital where he worked.

Among the items were a gun holster, a meat cleaver, a toiletries bag containing blank-firing ammunition and 250g of saltpetre, or Potassium Nitrate, which could be used as a rocket propellant or gunpowder.

Farooq, who denies plotting a terrorist attack at the two sites, admitted that “on a few occasions” he had taken the gun holster to work with him at the hospital.

In a transcript of one of his police interviews read out in court yesterday, he was asked why there appeared to be “screws and things” in the firework powder, to which he replied: “It was for the garage really.”

He said he had stripped the fireworks and placed the powder into plastic tubs which he then “poured into the bomb”.

He claimed he kept the meat cleaver under his bed to “make me feel more safe (sic), so I slept more peacefully” because he was “paranoid” and having nightmares. 

When asked what the 250g of Potassium Nitrate were doing at his home, Farooq claimed it was used as a fertiliser for a vegetable plot behind his garage as it was “supposed to be good for the soil”, and for “curing meat”.

Read more:

• ‘Lone wolf terrorist’ plotted to blow up RAF Menwith Hill, trial hears
• Harrogate air base a ‘designated Islamic State target’, terrorism trial hears

Farooq admitted he had been searching for “bomb manuals” on internet forums run by extremist Jihadi groups such as Al Qaeda but had not been looking for advice on how to carry out a terrorist attack.

Police seized documents such as ‘Safety and Security Guidelines for Lone Wolf Mujahideen and Small Cells” that he had downloaded from such forums. 

Other documents downloaded by Farooq included the Anarchist Cookbook and the Improvised Munition Handbook 1969 Department of the Army, which, despite chapters on how to manufacture explosives, grenades, ammunition, mortars, incendiary devices and detonators, Farooq claimed “didn’t suit me at all”. 

When asked if he had “any desire to be part of Al Qaeda” and carry out “Lone Wolf” attacks, he replied: “No, definitely not.” 

He said he was simply looking for a manual “to make a realistic-looking bomb” and wasn’t (on the Jihadi forums) to look at anything extremist.” 

He claimed he was simply trying to “get back” at his colleagues, specifically nurses, at the hospital against whom he had a grudge because he felt he had been “humiliated” by them, but “not to hurt them in any way, it was just to scare them”.

Other documents downloaded by Farooq included ‘How to make Semtex and other explosives, IEDs’, but he claimed that “wasn’t what I wanted”.

It’s alleged that Farooq’s initial plan was to target the US spy base near Harrogate, but he also planned to blow up part of the hospital and go on a terrorist spree with a firearm, a homemade bomb and a kitchen knife, with the aim of “killing as many people as possible”.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC added:

“By January 2023, we say that the defendant had a become self-radicalised lone-wolf terrorist who had made preparations to commit a murderous terrorist attack in Yorkshire.”

At about 5am on January 20, Farooq was arrested outside the Gledhow Wing of St James’s Hospital.

Mr Sandiford said:

“The defendant was in possession of a viable improvised explosive device assembled from a pressure cooker and containing 9.9 kilos of low explosive.

“He had with him…two knives, black tape and a blank-firing imitation firearm. The crown’s case is that he had gone to that hospital to commit a terrorist attack (and) seek his own martyrdom by detonating the explosive device and using bladed weapons to kill as many people as possible.”

Farooq sent a bomb threat from inside his car in the hospital car park, but it only reached an off-duty nurse who didn’t see it until over an hour later. He had intended to cause an evacuation while he waited outside to detonate the bomb and then “attack any survivors with the bladed weapons”.

However, because the bomb threat wasn’t seen for over an hour, the evacuation didn’t initially occur, and when it eventually did it was only a “part-evacuation”, with people being moved within the hospital, not to the car park where Farooq had been waiting.

Mr Sandiford said:

“When the evacuation happened, the defendant drove away.”

He returned to St James’s a short time later with a new plan of attack which was to carry the weapons including the homemade bomb into Costa Coffee inside the hospital wing, wait for a change of shift so that it would be full of nurses, “then detonate it, killing as many of them as possible”.

However, “luck intervened again” when patient Mr Newby, who was having a cigarette outside the entrance, bumped into Farooq and “noticed that something appeared to be amiss with the defendant”.

He persuaded Farooq to follow him away from the main hospital buildings to a bench where he “succeeded in talking him down” and called police, who turned up to arrest the alleged would-be terrorist.

Menwith Hill was ‘Plan A’

Using cell-site technology, police discovered that Farooq had made at least two visits to RAF Menwith Hill between January 10 and the day of his arrest on January 20. He had chosen the US spy base “because it was believed that the base had had been used to co-ordinate drone strikes against terrorists in Syria and Iraq”.

The RAF base had been his “Plan A” of attack, but when this didn’t come off, Farooq targeted the hospital in Leeds because it was seen as a “softer” target. 

Farooq later admitted that he had the bomb with him when he went to the air base but claimed he had just gone there “for a drive”. 

He had also “obtained instructions for the preparation and manufacture…of five deadly toxins as nerve agents”, namely Ricin, Sarin, VX, Tabun and Tetrodoxin. 

Farooq, of Hetton Road, Roundhay, has already admitted possessing an explosive substance in suspicious circumstances, possessing an improvised explosive device and pyrotechnic fuses.

He has also pleaded guilty to possessing a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and having an imitation firearm with criminal intent, namely a Gediz 9mm PAK semi-automatic pistol, and possession of the same imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

The trial continues. 

A man accused of plotting a terrorist attack on RAF Menwith Hill near Harrogate did so because it was a designated Islamic State target, a court heard.

Mohammad Farooq, 28, is accused of preparing pressure cooker bomb attacks on the US spy and radar base and a Leeds hospital.

In the second week of the trial at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday, the jury heard that Farooq had downloaded material from extremist Jihadi groups and online guides on how to make a bomb.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford said Farooq’s “Plan A” was to target Menwith Hill and when that didn’t come off, he turned his attention to “Plan B” – St James’s University Hospital, which he saw as a “softer and less-well-protected target”.

Mr Sandiford added:

“By January 2023, we say that the defendant had become a self-radicalised lone-wolf terrorist who had made preparations to commit a murderous terrorist attack in Yorkshire.”

Analysis of Farooq’s iPhone and his movements in his Seat Ibiza showed he had targeted RAF Menwith Hill after downloading extremist material on TikTok and lectures by a radical Islamist preacher.

He also obtained bomb-making instructions from Inspire, an Al Qaeda magazine which urged followers to carry out lone-wolf terror attacks against The West”, particularly in the US and the UK.

Mr Sandiford told the court:

“The reason (for targeting) RAF Menwith Hill (was because it) had been designated as a target for lone-wolf terrorists by Islamic State because it was believed that the base had had been used to co-ordinate drone strikes against terrorists in Syria and Iraq.”

Using cell-site technology, police discovered Farooq had made at least two visits to the RAF base between January 10 and the day of his arrest on January 20.

Farooq, from Leeds, later admitted he had an explosive device with him when he went to the air base but claimed he had just gone there “for a drive”.

He also obtained “instructions for the preparation and manufacture…of five deadly toxins as nerve agents”, namely Ricin, Sarin, VX, Tabun and Tetrodoxin.

Talked down by patient

Farooq took to the witness stand yesterday.

The court heard that the clinical support worker at St James’s University Hospital wandered into the hospital grounds carrying a homemade bomb, two knives and a 9mm PAK semi-automatic pistol.

Mr Sandiford said Farooq was standing at the entrance to the Gledhow Wing, waiting for the “right time” when that section of the hospital would be “full of nurses”before detonating his pressure-cooker-style bomb in the early hours of January 20.

However, by sheer chance, Nathan Newby, a patient, happened to be having a cigarette outside the main entrance at the time Farooq was allegedly about to execute his deadly plot.

Mr Newby said he was “good at reading body language”and thought “something was amiss” with Farooq.

He said that Farooq, allegedly inspired by Al Qaeda and Islamic State, was “right quiet at first” but then “just came out with it”, telling him he had a bomb and planned to detonate it inside the hospital.

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The quick-thinking patient kept a calm head and persuaded Farooq to walk with him to a bench away from the main hospital buildings. There they sat and chatted amiably until Farooq started “rocking back and forwards” and told him he had a bomb.

Mr Newby managed to calm Farooq, who had placed a bag with the bomb and explosives inside on the ground next to the bench, and “talk him down”.

Farooq handed him his phone and said: “Please dial 999. I’ve changed my mind.”

The “shocked” patient called police at about 4.20am and in a remarkably calm exchange with the call-taker, explained the situation to her, saying he was with a man who “seemed a good lad, a nice guy”, but who was carrying a homemade bomb and “wanted to set it off”.

Mr Newby said he asked Farooq what was inside his coat, whereupon Farooq unzipped his garment and pulled out a pistol. He tried to hand it to the patient who told him to put it on the bench, which he did.

‘Wanted to get back at nurses’

Under cross-examination from Farooq’s barrister Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, Mr Newby said he first approached Farooq because he looked distressed, “like he’d had some really bad news”, and wanted to cheer him up.

Farooq told Mr Newby he was “feeling down” and that he wanted “to get them back”.

It was explained that by “them”, Farooq meant the nurses with whom he worked at the hospital and had a beef.

Farooq told Mr Newby he “felt like they didn’t want him anymore” and that he “felt like he’d lost everything and just wanted to get them back”.

The witness said Farooq was “really relaxed” and it was “just like a normal conversation, like he was buying some trainers”.

Farooq then started “looking down at his bag” and put his hands in his pockets, “looking agitated” and rocking back and forth.

When Mr Newby asked Farooq what was inside his bag, he replied: “There’s a bomb.”

Farooq told him his plan was to “walk through the main doors past the lifts, straight to the canteen (in the Gledhow Wing)” and “wait for all (of) them to come back in” and detonate the bomb.

Mr Newby said he had been speaking to Farooq “for hours” before the alleged terrorist’s arrest.

Mr Sandiford said:

“The defendant was in possession of a viable improvised explosive device assembled from a pressure cooker and containing 9.9 kilos of low explosive.

“He had with him…two knives, black tape and…a firearm. The Crown’s case is that he had gone to that hospital to commit a terrorist attack (and) seek his own martyrdom by detonating the explosive device and using bladed weapons to kill as many people as possible.”

‘Wanted martyrdom’

Farooq, who had downloaded a map or plan of the hospital, had wanted to “induce a response” from police or get them to shoot him “to give him a martyrdom that he believed would bring him the seven blessings of the martyr and direct entry into Jannah, or Paradise”.

He had parked up outside the hospital and sent a bomb threat from the car park “with the intent of causing an evacuation while he was waiting in his car”. Mr Sandiford added:

“He was waiting to detonate the improvised explosive device and then attack any survivors with the bladed weapons.”

By chance, the bomb threat was sent to a nurse at the hospital who was off duty, watching TV at home, and “didn’t see or act upon the message for over an hour”, so a full evacuation never occurred and Farooq drove away.

He returned a short time later with a new plan of attack which was to carry the weapons, including the homemade bomb, into the Costa Coffee cafe inside the hospital, “wait for a change of shift so that it would be full of nurses, then detonate it, killing as many of them as possible”.

The pressure-cooker bomb, similar to the one used in the Boston Marathon terror attack in 2013, was made safe by a military bomb-disposal team as police began to run checks on Farooq’s movements before the alleged planned attack.

Farooq, of Hetton Road, Roundhay, has already admitted possessing an explosive substance, an improvised explosive device and pyrotechnic fuses in suspicious circumstances.

He has also pleaded guilty to possessing a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and carrying an imitation firearm with criminal intent. However, he denies plotting terrorist acts.

The trial continues.