Adam Mahmood asked another TikTok user to send him an instructional video on making a bomb and during an investigation was also found to have “medieval weapons” at his home
A 20-year-old with “terrorist motivations” who possessed a bomb-making video on how to make an explosive used in UK attacks has been jailed.
Adam Mahmood’s trial at Birmingham Crown Court was told he had more than 27,000 followers on TikTok and asked another user to send him the instructional video via a messaging app. During an investigation police also found “medieval weapons” in the defendant’s bedroom.
The former student was found guilty of a single count of possessing a recording likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism after a week-long trial in September. And he has now been sentenced to four years in a young offender institution.
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Mahmood, who sat in the dock to be sentenced, was told by Judge Simon Drew KC he will serve an extended period of three years on licence after his custodial sentence expires “in order to protect the public in the future”.
The trial heard the video provided “a detailed guide” to producing an explosive substance with a detonator and shrapnel to make a complete bomb.
The judge said police found an “alarming display of medieval weapons” in Mahmood’s bedroom, including swords, knives, an axe and a catapult, which the defendant claimed were linked to his interest in “Islamic history”.
Sentencing Mahmood, who is a former motor mechanics student, the judge said: “You had terrorist motivations. That is clear from the items in your bedroom, the material on your phone and your evidence.”
Although there was no evidence that Mahmood, of Platt Brook Way, Sheldon, Birmingham, intended to use the bomb-making video for a specific terrorist act, the judge said, the ball bearings found in his bedroom suggested the defendant was “at least contemplating assembling such a device”.
The judge added: “The presence of such an arsenal in the bedroom of an 18-year-old was a clear warning sign. One that regrettably no responsible adult acted upon.”
Speaking about the video obtained by Mahmood in October 2023, Judge Drew said: “The prosecution say you deliberately saved this video to your phone. You must have understood the nature of the video. Its visuals and subtitles made clear it was a bomb-making guide, not an innocuous clip.”
The judge said there was a “significant risk” Mahmood may commit further offences and he had showed a “high level of interest in, and support for, prohibited terrorist organisations”.
