Failed suicide bomber found hanged in his cell at HMP Manchester, inquest told
Nicky Reilly was serving a life sentence for plotting to attack restaurant customers in 2008
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
A failed suicide bomber who was jailed for life after trying to blow up a cafe in Exeter, was found hanging in his cell, an inquest heard.
Muslim convert Nicky Reilly, 30, accidentally set off a homemade explosive device in the toilets of a Giraffe restaurant as he prepared to launch a terror attack in May 2008
He succeeded only in injuring himself and was told he would serve at least 18 years in prison after admitting attempted murder at London's Old Bailey.
Reilly, who changed his name to Mohammed Saeed Alim, was transferred to high-security Broadmoor Hospital in April 2009 where he received treatment for an “emotionally unstable personality disorder”.
He was moved back to Belmarsh following an incident in July 2015 when Reilly and another patient assaulted members of Broadmoor staff before being transferred to Manchester.
Reilly, from Plymouth, was found hanging in his cell by a ligature suspended from a light fitting, in October 2016.
His mother Kim Reilly told the inquest at Heywood Coroner’s Court that he “seemed absolutely fine” when she saw him at the prison a month before his death.
She said her son had later told her in a phone call that his moods were constantly “up and down” and it was “wearing him out”.
The court heard Reilly had been referred to child adolescent mental health services at the age of nine and was later diagnosed in his teens with Asperger’s syndrome.
Mrs Reilly said her son was bullied at secondary school, had self-harmed and overdosed on a number of occasions and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act for a month when he was 16.
She said her son knew he did not fit into society, adding: ”People would be so judgmental. He just didn’t fit in.”
Mrs Reilly said her son became obsessed with the 9/11 terror attacks and began visiting a mosque before converting to Islam, said Mrs Reilly.
She claimed that a psychiatrist had expressed concerns to her about her son’s views on 9/11 and that he could be a target for being radicalised.
“Nicky threw himself into the Twin Towers and became very obsessed about it,” she said. “But it was on the sympathetic side and all the people who had died. Not the terrorists’ side. I thought it was a fad, his whole life had been fads.”
She said she agreed to a suggestion for police to visit the family home to speak to Reilly about radicalisation but was not aware that anyone ever spoke to her son.
Mrs Reilly told jurors that her “whole life fell to pieces” when she received a phone call on May 22 2008 to inform her that Reilly had been involved in an explosion.
She said she did not understand how “Nicky a good citizen, could be brought into something so dark and dangerous”.
Ms Reilly added: “If we knew what was going on we would have spoken to him and so would other members of the family.”
Dr Kevin Murray, consultant forensic psychiatrist at Broadmoor, said that the main focus was initially Reilly’s risk of self harm.
He told the inquest that the assault on staff on 23 July 2015 was “unexpected” and related to an order from the deputy director of security that there should be no communal praying on wards.
Dr Murray said that Reilly “felt this was a particular attack on Muslim patients.”
The inquest is scheduled to last eight days.
Additional reporting by Press Association