Bomb-plot suspect pushed for ‘full-on’ attack, court told
Planting bombs in a shopping mall wasn’t enough for an accused terrorist, who referenced the 9/11 attacks in the United States to describe what he had in mind for B.C., a court heard Tuesday.
In a clandestine May 2013 video played in B.C. Supreme Court, John Nuttall tells an undercover officer about dismissing a roommate’s proposal to detonate explosives in a mall as “childish.”
“That’s not my thing,” Nuttall says to the officer, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.
“I have to think bigger than that,” he says of the “full-on” attack he is considering.
Nuttall and his wife Amanda Korody, who were both recent converts to Islam, are accused of plotting to set off homemade pressure-cooker bombs on the grounds of the legislature in Victoria during Canada Day festivities in 2013.
They have pleaded not guilty to four terrorism-related charges.
In Tuesday’s video, Nuttall and Korody are seen returning with the officer from a reconnaissance mission to Vancouver Island.
Nuttall talks about having copied down the schedule for public tours at the legislature buildings, saying he wants to avoid killing tourists and instead target politicians.
“These are the people that need punishment,” he says, becoming agitated as he discusses staging an attack while the legislature is in session.
“They’re the ones who should be butchered and killed, not the innocent Muslims in Afghanistan and in Palestine.”
Outlining his plan, Nuttall says he envisions three groups of five people attacking nearby Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt while another band launches rockets at the legislature from the lawn of a neighbouring school.
At one point he reveals to the officer that he worries whether he’s smart enough to carry out the mission.
Nuttall tells the officer he otherwise has no doubts about going through with the terrorist attack, adding that he wants to join a model rocketry club to learn how to build deadly weapons.
Nuttall and Korody have previously said they see themselves as players in a war between Islam and the western world and that they want to avenge what they view as the mistreatment of Muslims overseas.
“We’re all going to die (one day), and I want to die,” Nuttall says. “For me it’s either jail or paradise.”