Asylum seeker guilty of dynamite hoax at MI5 HQ

A man who left a fake stick of dynamite outside the headquarters of MI5 has been found guilty of carrying out a bomb hoax.

Brazilian national Julian Valente Pereira, 32, staged the protest at Thames House in Millbank on 1 January, a day after his final appeal for asylum was dismissed.

He denied carrying out a bomb hoax by placing an article with intent but after a trial at City of London Magistrates' Court, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring concluded Pereira intended those watching to believe the device was real.

He has been remanded in custody ahead of sentencing on 1 April.

In CCTV footage shown in court, Pereira is seen stuffing paperwork about his immigration case through the doors of the building, before retrieving the "dynamite" from his bag.

He initially throws the object to the pavement, allowing the CCTV operator to zoom in to reveal what appears to be a fuse hanging out of the top of the brown cylinder.

Pereira is then seen moving the object, propping it up against the MI5 HQ doors, with a green cigarette lighter positioned nearby.

It was later found to made up with rolled-up A4 paper, brown masking tape, and string.

The incident happened the day after Pereira's final appeal for asylum had been dismissed by a judge and he faced removal from the UK.

Prosecutor Shannon Revel told the trial Pereira had admitted he wanted "maximum attention" on his complaints against the Home Office, after a long-running failed bid for asylum.

"The attention he desperately wanted on 1 January is only achieved by the fact that someone believed that object could explode," she said.

Pereira came to the UK with permission to work in July 2018 and has remained in the country illegally since February 2019.

"The defendant attended Thames House in Millbank, knowing it to be the headquarters of the security services MI5," added Revel.

Giving evidence, Pereira said he left the object at the front of MI5 because he wanted to "catch the attention" of the security services.

"I swear it wasn't my intention to cause any disruption on Vauxhall Bridge," he said.

He told the court he had also visited Buckingham Palace to throw a bag containing a copy of the immigration ruling and a knife stabbed through his ID inside the perimeter gates.

In a note on his phone from August 2025, Pereira wrote about "MI5 terrorising people inside hotels", and added: "I need to see the King."

He also said he planned to "give information" to the Archbishop of Canterbury as a precaution.

When giving evidence, Pereira insisted the device he left outside MI5 would not have been mistaken for an explosive, but added: "The news inside was dynamite."

Pereira was arrested in his room at an asylum hotel in Uxbridge, west London, and told officers about his "long and tireless battle with the Home Office to try to attain asylum", said the prosecutor.

The court heard that Pereira made allegations of Home Office "corruption", claimed illegal immigrants were employed by the government department and those in the system were living in "squalor".

Judge Goldspring was also told that Pereira handed himself in to police as an overstayer in October 2020, but later sought asylum after being told to leave the UK.

He was placed in asylum seeker accommodation in June 2021, asylum was refused in 2023, and his appeal against that decision was rejected by a judge on 31 December 2025.

The court heard that Pereira's paid-for accommodation was withdrawn on 9 January.

In his police interview, he told officers he had schizophrenia and had been hearing voices in his head.

The judge asked for reports on Pereira's mental health and risk of reoffending, and warned that he may be jailed or sent to the crown court for sentencing.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk