Man jailed for possessing bomb-making video

A man has been jailed for possessing a bomb-making video which explained how to make explosives similar to those previously used in UK terror attacks.

Adam Mahmood asked a TikTok user to send him the instructional video, which prosecutors described as a "detailed guide" on producing an explosive substance with a detonator and shrapnel.

The 20-year-old denied a charge of possessing a recording likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism but he was found guilty after a trial in September.

At Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, Mahmood, of Platt Brook Way in Sheldon, Birmingham, was sentenced to four years in a young offender institution.

Judge Simon Drew KC said Mahmood would serve an extended period of three years on licence after his custodial sentence expired "in order to protect the public in the future".

The trial was told Mahmood, a former motor mechanics student, had more than 27,000 followers on TikTok when he asked another user to send him the 14-minute video via the Telegram app.

He received it in October 2023 and last accessed the video on 24 March 2024, the court heard.

Mahmood claimed he initially watched it on fast-forward then skipped over parts and "didn't really think anything of it".

Sentencing Mahmood, the judge said: "The prosecution say you deliberately saved this video to your phone.

"You must have understood the nature of the video. Its visuals and subtitles made clear it was a bomb-making guide, not an innocuous clip."

The judge said police also found an "alarming display of medieval weapons" in Mahmood's bedroom.

These included swords, knives, an axe and a catapult, which the defendant claimed were linked to his interest in Islamic history.

While there was no evidence Mahmood intended to use the bomb-making video for a specific terrorist act, the judge said the ballbearings found in his bedroom suggested the defendant was "at least contemplating assembling such a device".

"You had terrorist motivations. That is clear from the items in your bedroom, the material on your phone and your evidence," Mahmood was told.

The judge added: "The presence of such an arsenal in the bedroom of an 18-year-old was a clear warning sign - one that regrettably no responsible adult acted upon."

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