Tube terror suspect says bomb was just a prank

A BABY-faced university student planted a ‘viable’ ball-bearing bomb on a train but it failed to go off, a court heard yesterday.

The rucksack full of explosives was found dumped on the floor of a Tube carriage near London Bridge station last week, sparking a major security alert.

But appearing in court for the first time yesterday, the teenager accused of making the device claimed the incident had just been a prank,

A lawyer for Damon Smith, 19, entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of unlawfully and maliciously making or having in his possession an explosive substance with an intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that on October 20, the rucksack containing the explosives was reported to the Tube driver by two suspicious passengers at London Bridge. But the driver dismissed it as lost property and took the bag back with him into his cab before continuing on his journey, passing underneath major landmarks including the Shard and Canary Wharf.

It was not until the train reached North Greenwich station, near the O2 arena in east London, four stops later that the driver looked inside the bag and saw the explosive device made up of wires, a clock timing device, an initiator and ball bearings, it was said.

Bomb squad officers rushed to the scene and the train and platform were evacuated until the device was blown up in a controlled explosion.

Smith – who had just moved to the capital from Devon, and lived with his mother – was seen boarding the Jubilee Line train at Southwark that morning, leaving one stop later at London Bridge, the court heard.

He was arrested the next day near London Metropolitan University’s campus entrance in Holloway, North London, where he was just three weeks into an IT course. Kathryn ‘Just a prank’: Damon Smith, 19 Selby, prosecuting, told the court: ‘On October 20, an abandoned black Adidas rucksack was found by two members of the public in a carriage on a Jubilee Line Tube train.

‘They alerted the driver in his cab to the package. He then took hold of it into his cab, and initially phoned through to say that there was lost property.

‘As he continued on his journey to North Greenwich underground station, he looked inside the bag, and that is when he saw the device that had been left within it.

‘He then contacted people at the station, and the process was put in place to call the Explosives Unit and also SO15 of Counter Terrorism Division of the Metropolitan Police.’

At one point the prosecutor was interrupted when Smith’s mother, Antonitza, called out from the public gallery.

During the hearing Smith spoke only to confirm his name, age and address in a high-pitched voice.

Simon Eastwood, defending, said his client would be pleading not guilty on the grounds that it was a prank, adding: ‘It is accepted he suffers a mental health condition – Asperger’s. He lives with his mum. His mum came up to London with him from Devon because he got a place at university.’

Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot remanded Smith in custody ahead of a hearing at the Old Bailey on November 17.

‘He has a mental health condition’