Asylum seeker accused of MI5 fake dynamite alert

A failed asylum seeker sparked a security alert outside MI5 headquarters after leaving a fake stick of dynamite by the building's front doors, a court has heard.

Julian Valente Pereira, 32, is accused of constructing a mock explosive using rolled‑up A4 paper, brown masking tape and string to resemble a fuse, and placing it outside Thames House in central London on 1 January, the day after losing his final appeal for asylum.

MI5 CCTV operators alerted police, and a counter‑terrorism explosives expert was deployed to assess the object.

Pereira, who admitted he "hates the Home Office", denied carrying out a bomb hoax and said he never intended for anyone to believe the device was real.

City of London Magistrates' Court was show CCTV of the Brazilian national placing the imitation device it up against the doors of the MI5 headquarters with a green cigarette lighter.

An explosives specialist later confirmed the item was a hoax.

Prosecutor Shannon Revel said Pereira admitted he wanted "maximum attention" for his complaints against the Home Office.

She told the court that such attention "could only be achieved" if the object appeared capable of causing an explosion.

Following the incident, Pereira was arrested at his accommodation in an asylum hotel in Uxbridge, west London.

In interviews, he made allegations of Home Office "corruption", claimed illegal immigrants were employed by the Government department, and said those in the system were living in "squalor".

He told officers he had been "tortured" by his five‑year experience in the asylum system.

The court heard Pereira arrived in the UK in July 2018 with permission to work but overstayed from February 2019.

He surrendered himself to police as an overstayer in 2020 and later applied for asylum after being instructed to leave the UK.

His asylum claim was refused in 2023 and his appeal was rejected on 31 December 2025, the court heard.

In his police interview Pereira told officers he had schizophrenia and had been hearing voices.

The trial continues.

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