Found dead in jail, Muslim convert who bombed restaurant
Muslim convert held after nailbomb rocks restaurant From the Mail, May 23, 2008
A MUSLIM convert who was jailed for life after blowing himself up in a failed suicide attack on a crowded restaurant has died in prison.
Nicky Reilly, 30, accidentally set off a homemade nail bomb in a toilet cubicle as he prepared to target dozens of customers.
He injured only himself in the blast at the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter in May 2008.
Reilly was found dead in Manchester jail yesterday, a Prison Service spokesman said.
Described as the ‘least cunning person ever to have been charged with terrorism’, he had pleaded guilty to attempted murder and preparing an act of terrorism.
Reilly, of Plymouth, who was also known as Mohamed Saeed-Alim, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years in 2009.
His mother Kim Reilly, 49, confirmed her son had died but did not reveal the circumstances. She said: ‘I don’t want to comment or say anything about it. I am far too upset at the moment.’
A Prison Service spokesman said: ‘ HMP Manchester prisoner Mohamed Saeed-Alim died in custody on Wednesday, October 19.
‘As with all deaths in custody there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.’
Reilly decided to carry out his attack on the restaurant after being encouraged by others on the internet. He had intended to run out into the packed dining area holding three bottles, filled with caustic soda, kerosene, and nails, to his stomach.
But he got stuck in the toilet as he prepared the blast, leaving one of the bottles to go off before he could leave the cubicle. The explosion left him with serious facial injuries and sent dozens of customers fleeing in panic.
Reilly had converted to Islam between 2002 and 2003 and was soon telling others about his interest in jihad.
In 2004 he changed his name and began to download videos on bomb-making and martyrdom from YouTube.
He was intent on becoming a martyr by killing himself and others, and wrote: ‘That is my dream.’
In a rambling suicide note written in red ink and left in his bedroom before the restaurant attack, Reilly described how he had been motivated by the ‘disgusting’ behaviour of people in Britain and the ‘war on Islam’.