A man who took a viable pressure cooker bomb into a hospital in Leeds intending to “kill as many nurses as possible” has been jailed for life.
Mohammad Farooq was sentenced to a minimum term of 37 years at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday.
Farooq, who was a trainee nurse, was last year found guilty of attempting to launch an IS-inspired suicide attack using a homemade bomb on the hospital where he worked in 2023.
He was also jailed for plotting to attack RAF Mentwith Hill.
Sentencing Farooq, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb praised the actions of Nathan Newby, the patient who talked him out of exploding his home-made device.
The device would have been twice as powerful as those used by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers.
The judge said: “He’s an extraordinary, ordinary man whose decency and kindness on 20 January 2023, prevented an atrocity in a maternity wing of a major British hospital.”
She said Mr Newby was a “modest and gentle man whose evidence was among the most remarkable this court has ever heard”.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
