Leeds hospital bomb accused driven by anger at colleagues, jury told

Mohammed Farooq was found with a viable homemade bomb outside St James's Hospital in Leeds

A hospital worker accused of planning terror attacks brought a bomb into work because of "anger" towards colleagues, his lawyer has told a jury.

Mohammed Farooq, 28, has admitted being "ready and willing" to detonate the homemade explosive at St James's Hospital in Leeds in January.

But he denies being motivated by Islamist extremism, barrister Gul Nawaz Hussain KC told Sheffield Crown Court.

Farooq is on trial accused of preparing acts of terrorism.

The clinical support worker was arrested outside the hospital in the early hours of 20 January and found to be in possession of a viable pressure cooker bomb.

Prosecutors have described him as a "self-radicalised lone wolf terrorist" who planned attacks on the hospital and an RAF base near Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

But Mr Hussain said the defendant would argue he was "motivated by a deep-rooted - yet unjustified - sense of anger and grievance towards those that he worked with".

Farooq, of Hetton Road in Roundhay, Leeds, has admitted several charges including possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life.

His barrister told the jury on Tuesday that Farooq "accepts searching for bomb-making instructions" online, making a viable explosive and "at times being ready and willing to detonate that bomb at the hospital".

But he said his client, who has pleaded not guilty to one terrorism charge, "will say that his actions were not motivated by Islamist extremism" and that he "was not radicalised".

Mohammed Farooq denies being motivated by Islamist extremism

Farooq harboured a grudge against several colleagues and had mounted a "poison pen" campaign against them, the jury has heard.

But prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC told the court on Monday the defendant had initially planned to attack RAF Menwith Hill, a base used by US intelligence services.

He made at least two visits to the military site with the bomb but abandoned plans to attack it because it was too well protected, the court heard.

Prosecutors allege Farooq then turned his attention to the hospital as an alternative target for "a murderous terrorist attack in Yorkshire".

The court heard he was talked out of it by a patient, Nathan Newby, who encountered Farooq outside the hospital's Gledhow wing and engaged him in conversation.

Mr Sandiford said Mr Newby had "certainly saved many lives".

The trial continues.