Terror accused had mosques map and dark web software
Jury hear of suspicious searches on web and racist songs
A SCOT accused of terrorism had a map of mosques and software to allow him to access the dark web, it was claimed yesterday.
A computer registered to Connor Ward also featured race hate material and Google searches including “fake police warrant cards”, “how to make a flash grenade” and “how to make inert bullets work”, a court heard.
Ward, 25, from Banff, denies two charges of breaching the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Terrorism Act 2006 between February 2011 and November 2014.
Forensic computing expert James Borwick, 53, told the High Court in Edinburgh that he was asked by police in July 2016 to examine a computer registered to a Connor Ward, along with a USB stick storage device.
Mr Borwick said he found a file on the USB device which was titled Aberdeen. The author of the document was named as Connor Ward
When he opened the file, it contained a Google Maps-style plan of the city with five pins dropped at various locations.
Each of the pins was lettered A to E and was dropped at the locations of five places of Islamic worship.
At the side of the document, the postal addresses of the mosques were given.
The court heard that the author of the map document was a man called Connor Ward.
Mr Borwick also told the court that the computer contained the TOR Internet Browser - a piece of software which would allow users to surf the dark web, which hosts sinister websites selling explosives and drugs.
Prosecution lawyer Richard Goddard asked Mr Borwick about the Tor browser. He said: “Does it prevent law enforcement from tracking user activity?” Mr Borwick replied: “Yes it does.”
Mr Goddard asked if the use of the browser made someone untraceable. Mr Borwick replied: “Yes.” He explained that it allowed users to access the dark web – a collection of websites which cannot be accessed from conventional internet browsers and are often used by criminals.
He added: “You can access drugs. You can access weapons.”
He added that the computer records showed that the browser had been used twice but he couldn’t discover what had been looked at.
Mr Borwick was giving evidence on the third day of proceedings against Ward.
He also told the court he looked at Google searches which had been carried out on the laptop.
One included the words: “Is it safe to send illegal mail by Royal Mail or courier?”
The device also contained a number of so-called song lyrics.
One was on a file entitled The White Man Marches On Lyrics (Re-written by Connor JM Ward).
The jury was shown the file, which included a number of racial slurs and glorified Adolf Hitler.
Another lyric shown to the jury was headed: “We are coming down the road lyrics.”
The words, referring to the extreme far-right group Combat 18, read: “We are coming, we are coming,
“We are coming down the road.
“When you hear the noise of us Combat 18 boys,
“That’s us coming down the road.”
Mr Borwick said he also found a file entitled “passwords”.
It contained a username of knuckleduster and the password whateverittakes.
Another password was for a BT account.
The password read “1reich1fuhrer”.
Prosecutors allege that Ward collected information of a kind likely to be useful to someone preparing an act of terrorism.
The trial, before judge Lord Burns, continues.