Mother of gun-mad train bomber blames YouTube
Teenage ‘Devon white boy’ planted home-made device on London Underground before going to lecture
THE mother of a weapons-obsessed student has said “YouTube is poison”, blaming it for transforming her altar boy son from a “Devon white boy” to a Tube bomb plotter.
Damon Smith faces years in prison after being found guilty of planting a home-made bomb on a Jubilee line train when he was 19, and then calmly heading to college for a lecture.
The Old Bailey heard how Smith, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, built the explosive device at home after searching the internet for an al-Qaeda article entitled “Make A Bomb In The Kitchen of Your Mom”.
Smith admitted being interested in Islam but denied being an extremist, even though he posed next to an image of the Islamist terrorist alleged to have masterminded the attacks in Paris in November 2015.
He was not charged with terrorist offences because there was no evidence his actions were for the purpose of a political, religious or ideological cause, according to prosecutors.
He told police he had been inspired after watching a bomb prank on You Tube and had only intended to release smoke from the device.
A search of the home in Rotherhithe, south London, that he shared with his mother, revealed his fixation with guns, explosives and other weapons. Police seized a blank-firing, self-loading pistol and a BB gun, both bought legally, as well as a knuckle-duster and a knife, which he showed off in an online video.
An Old Bailey jury took two hours to find Smith, now 20, guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent. He had already admitted the lesser offence of making a bomb hoax. Smith, who smiled throughout his trial, gave no reaction to the verdict.
Smith grew up living with his mother in Newton Abbot, Devon. His lawyer, Richard Carey-Hughes QC, told jurors that Smith was no “hate-filled jihadi”, but a “white boy from Devon” who was “tied to his mother’s apron strings”.
Last night his mother, Antonitza Smith, 47, told The Daily Telegraph she blamed YouTube for influencing her son and called for it to be banned.
“How to make a bomb – that shouldn’t be on YouTube because people copy, especially vulnerable people,” she said. “Whatever people put on YouTube, broadcast on YouTube – how to make a bomb, how to blow up a car, hacking etc – it’s illegal really. They talk about terrorism, beheadings. That shouldn’t be on YouTube so young kids could see it. It’s wrong.
“The government should ban it so it might save another child from what my son has gone through.”
The jury had heard how on the morning of Oct 20 last year, Smith, packed a rucksack with explosives and deadly ball-bearing shrapnel and headed off to college in Holloway, north London.
He was caught on CCTV on the Jubilee line before getting off and leaving the bomb on the floor, timed to go off within minutes. Passengers in the carriage spotted the abandoned rucksack and alerted staff.
The jury heard that had Smith’s bomb worked as intended, it would have exploded as commuters were being ordered off the platform.
Upon his arrest by counter-terrorism officers, he admitted making the bomb, but insisted it was only meant to spew out smoke as a Hallowe’en joke.
Judge Richard Marks QC adjourned sentencing until May 26 to allow time for reports on Smith.