Jury considers verdict over Parsons Green bomb
Written by News on 15/03/2018
A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a teenager accused of the Parsons Green Tube bombing.
Ahmed Hassan, an 18-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker, told the court he left a homemade bomb on a train last September because he was bored and wanted attention, rather than having the intention to harm or kill.
The device partially exploded on a District line train at Parsons Green station in west London. Thirty people were seriously injured and burned in the fireball that ripped through the carriage.
Hassan, who had been living with foster parents in Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey, denies attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life.
The teen says he developed a fugitive fantasy fuelled by action films.
He said he was “certain” the bomb would not explode. After testing a sample on the kitchen table, Hassan says he believed the device would “just burn” and that the idea of killing someone had never crossed his mind.
The prosecution has claimed the media studies student was moved by “anger and hatred” when he planted 400g of explosives.
His trial at the Old Bailey heard he told a mentor that it was his “duty to hate Britain” – and the court heard he blamed the UK and the US for the death of his father in Iraq.
In his summing up, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave told jurors a central issue in relation to the bomb was whether a device containing 400g of high explosives and 2.2kg of shrapnel was a “hoax” or not.
He said: “The prosecution rely heavily on motive in this case and point to evidence that Hassan was angry. He blamed the coalition for his father’s death. He had been killed by a bomb in Iraq.
The judge told jurors that Hassan denied the accusation and said he never had contact with Islamic State.
Sending the jury out just after 12.30pm on Thursday, the judge said: “Be logical, objective, dispassionate. What’s required is 12 cool heads.”
(c) Sky News 2018: Jury considers verdict over Parsons Green bomb
