Man planned fairy lights train bomb
A WOULD-BE terrorist planned to target a high speed railway line with a device made from fairy lights, a court heard.
Zahid Hussain is alleged to have improvised detonator parts from fairy lights after being radicalised by videos of the war in Syria before his arrest in August 2015.
The 29-year-old’s trial has heard a “US Army Guerrilla” book found at his home was apparently bookmarked at a section covering attacks on railways. CCTV footage played to a jury showed a hooded figure said to be Mr Hussain clambering into a storm drain near a railway line in his home suburb of Alum Rock in Birmingham, used by trains on the West Coast mainline.
The Crown claims the footage shows Mr Hussain, who denies attempting to make a pressure cooker bomb, carrying a JD Sports bag while investigating the stretch of railway as a possible target.
Part of the footage, filmed by cameras on a nearby house, captures an early morning Virgin Trains service passing shortly before the man shown on the film walks into a garden adjoining the railway. It shows the man struggling to lever up the manhole cover with a crowbar before descending into the drain.
Continuing the Crown’s opening of the case against Mr Hussain at Birmingham Crown Court, prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC told jurors: “The prosecution say that if you look at the clothing and in particular the JD Sports bag, that can be matched to the defendant.
“It may be noted that one recurrent theme in the defendant’s activities and interests was undoubtedly railway lines.
“There is no evidence indicating that Mr Hussain had formed a settled plan to attack a particular section of railway line but you may think that it would be reasonable to draw an inference that Mr Hussain had at the least contemplated the use of railway lines as a potential target for a terrorist attack.”
The CCTV footage, found after a local resident spotted the manhole cover had been moved, was recorded in the early hours of July 31 and Aug 2 2015.
The defendant, who denies preparation of terrorist acts, two counts of making explosives and one of attempting to make explosives, has been given permission to witness his trial via a videolink to a psychiatric hospital.
The court heard yesterday the guerrilla warfare book, bearing Mr Hussain’s fingerprints, contained advice relating to the ambush and derailment of trains. The trial has been told Mr Hussain wrongly believed his non-viable “bomb”, packed with shrapnel, was capable of causing devastation.
He later told detectives he had intended to sell the device, which was not intended for the killing of British civilians, to a national newspaper.
Questioned about the manhole, Mr Hussain allegedly told officers he had received “subliminal messages” telling him to search drains for an item, possibly a weapon. The trial continues.