Leeds hospital patient talked down bomber, terror trial told

A patient “saved many lives” by talking down a hospital worker who planned to “kill as many nurses as possible” with a homemade bomb, a court has heard.

Mohammed Farooq, 28, brought a pressure cooker device to St James’s Hospital in Leeds on 20 January to “commit a terrorist atrocity,” prosecutors claim.

The clinical support worker was arrested after patient Nathan Newby called police.

At Sheffield Crown Court, Farooq denies preparing acts of terrorism.

The jury heard the defendant told police after his arrest that the pressure cooker device was modelled on the bombs used in the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon attack, but was intended to be twice as powerful.

Opening the prosecution’s case on Monday, Jonathan Sandiford KC said Farooq was a “self-radicalised, lone wolf terrorist” who had also planned to attack RAF Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, in North Yorkshire.

Read more: BBC News