It’s my duty to hate Britain, Tube bomb accused ‘told tutor’
POSING with his arms outstretched under a dangling knife, this is the Iraqi teenager who said it was his ‘duty to hate Britain’ before carrying out the Parsons Green bombing, a court heard.
Ahmed Hassan, 18, is accused of building a bomb which caused a fireball that ripped through a carriage at the Tube station, injuring 30 commuters.
As the jury was shown troubling photos of the teenager and his bedroom, he was said to have told his teacher just months after arriving in the UK on the back of a lorry that he blamed Britain for his parents’ deaths in Iraq.
He told his tutor and mentor Katie Cable at Brooklands College in Weybridge, Surrey that ‘the British’ were to blame for his father being blown up in a US air raid and his mother being shot in Iraq, it was alleged. Miss Cable told how she grew so concerned for the teenager, she referred him to the Government’s Prevent programme, which aims to stop people being drawn into terrorism.
The Old Bailey heard she saw the asylum seeker receive a confirmation message on his phone that he had donated to Islamic State – shortly after he told the Home Office during his first immigration interview that he had been trained to kill by the terror group.
Hassan allegedly told immigration officials in 2016 that IS fighters tutored him for three months, adding that they ‘would train them how to kill and how to hurt people’.
The 15-year-old orphan, who came to Britain in October 2015 through the Channel Tunnel, was referred to Brooklands College where he became close to Miss Cable, a volunteer mentor for refugees. She said they talked about Tony Blair and the invasion of Iraq.
‘The anger was very clear,’ she said. ‘When he first arrived he was probably in a worse state than I have seen any student who’s started with us – very severely conflicted, frightened and confused, plagued by boredom. I was witnessing behaviour in class which told of trauma, he would leave the class, snapping pens. If I used the word “broken” it would be no exaggeration.’
She said she saw a WhatsApp message on his phone stating: ‘IS has accepted your donation.’ She added: ‘He mentioned the words, “It is my duty to hate Britain,” and I was concerned about the word duty.’
Nevertheless, he excelled at college, Miss Cable said.
But in July 2017, Hassan’s moods worsened and he texted her saying: ‘Your country continues to bomb my people daily.’ Hassan was placed with a foster family in Sunbury, Surrey with the help of his mentor despite his disturbing behaviour.
Yesterday jurors were given a glimpse of Hassan’s bedroom where he allegedly stashed his bomb ingredients bought with an £20 Amazon voucher he won after being named ‘student of the year’ at college.
Selfies taken by Hassan show him with his palms held out underneath a blade which appears to be suspended on a piece of string.
Elsewhere in the bedroom, the horror film fanatic had tubes of fake blood. On his bedroom door, he had scrawled ‘ I’m bored’ dozens of times while his foster parents were away.
After disappearing to Wales without telling his foster parents in the summer of 2016, Hassan was referred to Prevent, jurors heard. But he was not monitored and the following summer while his foster parents were away on holiday, Hassan is said to have assembled a 400g bomb with the deadly explosive triacetone triperoxide ( TATP), commonly known as Mother of Satan.
He allegedly packed the bucket bomb with knives, screwdrivers and nails for ‘maximum carnage’ and left it on the District Line train on September 15 last year.
It partially exploded during the morning rush hour, injuring 30.
When Hassan was picked up by police at the port of Dover the next day, he admitted he had made the bomb, the court has heard. He denies attempted murder and using TATP to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
The trial continues.
‘The anger was very clear’