Nicky Reilly, 22, who uses the adopted the Islamic name Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim, pleaded guilty to launching the failed attack in Exeter on May 22. The Old Bailey heard that Reilly considered attacking a naval dockyard and a police station but instead deliberately chose to target civilians at the Giraffe restaurant in the Princesshay shopping centre.Reilly researched how to make a bomb, acquired the components and made three devices using caustic soda, paraffin and aluminium foil, along with nails, which he had put in glass soft drink bottles. But the planned attack failed when he got locked in a toilet cubicle as he attempted to assemble one of the soft drink bottle bombs, the court heard. He was arrested when he staggered outside after suffering serious facial injuries when one of his devices exploded.
Appearing in court by video link, Reilly, of King Street, Plymouth, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and engaging in preparation for terrorism. His mother Kim said that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome and had clearly been "brainwashed". Counter terrorist police are still hunting for two men believed to have encouraged him via an extremist website.
Outlining the case, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith told the court that an examination of Reilly's computer showed that he had began to plan the attack early this year, keeping in regular touch with two as-yet unidentified men on a website called Chechen233. He researched how to buy the materials for a suicide vest before deciding to use bottle bombs packed with hundreds of nails for the planned attack.
"There was some debate, which is revealed by comments on the computer, about what sort of person should be targeted in due course, whether public servants such as police officers or other public servants or ordinary citizens," the judge said. "In the end the decision was made to target ordinary citizens in a restaurant.
"He bought more than necessary equipment over those months to construct two types of improvised devices, one using caustic soda and the other kerosene. He appears to have tried to increase the potential for injury and death both to himself and others by putting chemicals in glass bottles and filling those bottles with a total of around 500 nails."
The court heard that Reilly boarded a double-decker Stagecoach bus at Bretonside bus station in his home town of Plymouth at 10.20 on May 22, carrying six bottles, three containing caustic soda, three kerosene and another chemical contained in drain cleaner. Arriving in Exeter shortly after midday, he headed for the toilets of the Giraffe restaurant at the Princesshay shopping centre and attempted to finish assembling the device in a toilet cubicle. But as one started to partially explode he struggled to open the cubicle lock and the device went off, leaving him with facial injuries. He was arrested as he staggered outside .
When police searched the flat he shared with his mother and 10-year-old brother, they found a typed note which suggested he had planned a suicide attack. His mother said: "He would have had to have instructions or guidance from someone ... Somebody has brainwashed him, he has done the work and they are walking free."
The Islamists were using someone with quite a troubled history in this case:
Exeter terror bomber was known as 'Big Friendly Giant'