Student gets 15 years for tube bomb plant

Damon Smith, a 20 year-old student, has been jailed for 15 years for planting a home-made bomb on a busy tube train. Smith, who is autistic, claimed the bomb was a Halloween prank after finding an online al-Qaida article entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom. He has been found guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent following a trial at the Old Bailey, and has been sentenced to 15 years in a young offender institution with an extended period of five years on licence. The judge is reported to have 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.”