Man who said he wanted to throw grenade at police station jailed

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A man who said he wanted to throw a grenade at a police station has been jailed for terror and explosives offences.

Mohammed Chowdhury, 24, was arrested after meeting with an undercover police officer who was posing as an arms dealer at a Costa Coffee branch in London.

Chowdhury paid £300 for what he believed to be a real grenade, but was immediately arrested in a sting by armed police.

He was convicted of attempting to possess an explosive with intent to endanger life or property in February, following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Chowdhury had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing documents likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism, but was not charged with planning a terror attack himself.

Sentencing him on Monday, Judge Philip Katz QC said Chowdhury did not have a “fixed plan” and that throwing the grenade at a police station was one possibility.

He said Chowdhury intended to cause serious damage or endanger life with the weapon by detonating it in public at a future point.

Chowdhury was jailed for nine years with a further five years on extended licence, after the judge found him to be a dangerous offender.

The defendant was previously prosecuted after brandishing an axe outside Stepney Green Underground Station in 2019.

The court heard that he had been pushed by a man and returned with the weapon, waving it around.

After being caught, Chowdhury appeared to direct his rage against the police.

Judge Katz said he had not been politically or religiously radicalised, and that the attempted purchase of the hand grenade did not have a terrorist connection.

But he found that Chowdhury developed an “unhealthy interest in explosives and dangerous weapons” and looked for information on weapons and explosives on the dark web.

“You were not radicalised in the religious or political way seen in so many other cases, but you were deeply immersed in the digital world of violence,” the judge added.

“In my judgment, when you become frustrated with life your anger is liable to tip over into action and violence.”

He rejected Chowdhury's mitigation that his threats were merely “childish tantrums”.

Defence barrister Michael Skelley said Chowdhury had struggled throughout his life and had wanted to be a spy like James Bond.

He had been assessed for a learning disability and autism but had never received a full diagnosis.

At the time of the offending, he was unemployed and isolated, existing on takeaways in a bedsit and surfing the internet, Mr Skelley said.

Judge Katz said Chowdhury had led a lonely and isolated life, and may have fallen through a gap in mental health services.

Following his arrest on 5 February 2020, he made several phone calls to relatives from prison where he told them what he wanted to do with the grenade.

In one call to his mother and sister, he said he wanted “to chuck it in the station area”, adding: “I wanted to do something serious like on the TV.”

Speaking to his mother in March 2020, he said: “I don’t care about the judge or the police and that. I wanted to hurt one of them, innit. I was getting annoyed. That’s why I went, that’s why I went to get the thingy [grenade].”

Chowdhury suggested he could have concealed the grenade in a place where it would have “blown up in their face”, but then added: “If I would have got that I would have chucked it at the station, innit, I don’t care.”

He said he wanted to do “something bad” and told his mother: “I don’t care if I see any legs or anything or someone’s legs coming off. Something like that.”

The Old Bailey heard the target for his grenade attack could have been Bethnal Green police station.

In a search of his flat, police recovered a “shopping list” including handcuffs, nitrite gloves, and strong acid.

Chowdhury appeared to have attempted to buy a balaclava, lock picks, a stun gun and a handgun online, jurors heard.

In a note saved on his mobile phone, he had written about wanting his family dead, “feeling homicidal” and attacking students in a college.

“I feel I want to commit mass murder and kill myself before the police get a chance to arrest me,” Chowdhury wrote.

An examination of the device indicated that he had downloaded information on making explosives, including terrorist documents.

Chowdhury had also searched the internet for terms including IED, pipebomb and the phrase “let’s make a bomb”.

Commander Richard Smith, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command said: “Chowdhury downloaded a number of extremely concerning documents and manuals, containing details of how to create and deploy explosives and lethal weapons. What’s more, he then made very serious attempts at trying to get hold of a hand grenade, which, it transpired, he was considering to use against a police station.

“These are extremely serious offences and the public are undoubtedly safer following this investigation and outcome.“