Tube Bomb Plotter Damon Smith Sentenced to 15 Years

Damon Smith, prosecuted by Jonathan Rees QC, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for planting a homemade bomb on a London underground train, during morning rush hour.

Smith, 20, constructed the rucksack bomb according to instructions in an online magazine linked to al-Qaida. Filled with ball-bearing shrapnel and using a £2 clock from Tesco as an improvised timer, the devise did not go off.

During the trial, Jonathan Rees QC said ‘This fixation and lack of empathy allayed any concern he may have had for the consequences.

After a five-day trial, an Old Bailey jury rejected the defence’s explanation that Smith was no ‘hate-filled jihadi’ that never meant to harm anyone, and found Smith guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent, contrary to the 1883 Explosive Substances Act 3 May.

Sentencing him, judge, Richard Marks QC said: “Quite what your motives were and what your true thinking was in acting as you did is difficult to discern with any degree of clarity or certainty.”

“Whatever the position, the seriousness of what you did cannot be overstated, not least against the background of the fear in which we all live from the use of bombs here and around the world, an all too timely reminder of which were the events in Manchester earlier this week.”