Ex-GCHQ man jailed for life after stabbing US security worker

A former UK intelligence worker has been jailed for stabbing a US government employee.

Joshua Bowles, from Cheltenham, attacked the woman in a leisure centre car park, three miles from GCHQ’s base, in March.

He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assaulting a second person, causing actual bodily harm.

The 29-year-old was handed a life sentence at the Old Bailey, with a minimum term of 13 years.

Armed with two knives, Bowles punched and stabbed the woman repeatedly on 9 March, leaving her with cuts to her abdomen, chest and thigh.

The ex-computer software coding developer later said he had targeted her because he could not handle the “murky waters of ethics” and “the power that the American NSA have and the things they do”.

During sentencing, senior judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb found the stabbing was a “politically motivated attack” driven by “anger and resentment” towards GCHQ and women.

Read more: BBC News