Damon Smith: Teenager who made bombs 'because he was bored' found guilty over Tube explosive

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A 20-year-old has been found guilty of planting a home-made bomb on a busy Tube train.

Damon Smith, who was 19 at the time, built the device at home with a £2 clock from Tesco after Googling an al-Qaida article entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom.

Smith denied possession of an explosive substance with intent but admitted the lesser offence of making a bomb hoax.

Although Smith's lawyer told jurors he was no "hate-filled jihadi" and never meant to harm anyone, an Old Bailey jury rejected his explanation and found Smith guilty of the more serious charge after deliberating for two hours.

Smith left a rucksack packed with explosives and ball bearing shrapnel on a Jubilee Line train on 20 October and timed it to go off 13 minutes later, the jury heard.

At least 10 passengers were in the carriage at the time and some of them spotted the abandoned rucksack and alerted the driver.

But the driver at first dismissed it as lost property and took it into his cab and carried on towards North Greenwich, jurors were told.

During the journey he spotted wires coming out and he raised the alarm as he pulled into the station.

Had Smith's bomb worked, it would have exploded just as commuters were being ordered off the platform, the jury heard.

Upon his arrest, the student admitted making the bomb but claimed he only meant it to spew harmless smoke as a Halloween joke.

A search of Smith's home in Rotherhithe, south London, revealed his fixation with guns, explosives and other weapons.

Police seized a blank-firing self-loading pistol and a BB gun, both bought legally, as well as a knuckleduster and a knife which he showed off in an online video.

Pictures were also recovered of Smith with guns, including one on a laptop labelled "2016 an Islamic State fighter".

He professed to be interested in Islam as "more true" than Christianity, but denied being an extremist.

He posed next to an image of the Brussels-born Islamist terrorist alleged to have masterminded the attacks in Paris in November 2015, the court heard.

A psychiatric report by Dr Ian Cumming revealed Smith's longstanding dark obsession with weapons of all kinds.

At the age of 10, Smith first became interested in bomb-making as "something to do when he was bored".

And at the age of 12, he got a police baton and nunchucks from the US.

Jurors saw pictures and video of Smith posing with his collection, including a blank-firing self-loading pistol, a BB gun, knuckleduster and a knife.

He had a keen interest in what they could do too, having looked up details of the Boston Marathon bombing, the 1999 London nail bomber and other atrocities around the world.

The jury heard during the trial that Smith has Asperger syndrome and that his keen interest in weapons might have been connected to his condition.

Sue Hemming, of the CPS, said: "Damon Smith's actions were incredibly dangerous and the consequences had the device worked do not bear thinking about.

"Although he claimed this was a prank, the bomb he left on the train was clearly designed to cause horrific injuries.

"I would like to express my thanks to the quick-thinking members of the public and TfL staff for the way they dealt with this incident."

Commander Dean Haydon, the head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "Throughout this investigation and subsequent trial, Smith claimed that his actions were meant as a harmless prank and that the object was nothing more than a smoke bomb.

"It is hard to believe that leaving what has been described as an improvised explosive device on a Tube train, on a weekday morning, can be construed as anything but an attempt to endanger life.

"It is fortunate that the device failed to work and that no one was injured.

"At a time when the threat level remains at severe, I find it unlikely that anyone would consider his defence as an appropriate excuse for his actions.

"The jury rightly disagreed with him and I expect that Smith will now face a significant prison sentence."

He will be sentenced on 26 May.

Additional reporting by agencies