A student collected bomb-making chemicals and conducted experiments before burying his equipment in a secret woodland hide as he prepared a terrorist attack for the “working class” intended to kill at least 50 politicians, a court has heard.
Jacob Graham, 20, from Norris Green, Liverpool, used the name “Destro the Destroyer” and planned to attack government buildings and politicians’ houses, Manchester Crown Court heard.
He made over 100 videos in which he talked about “Judgement Day” and said: “I have constant anger, I am a ticking timebomb. I am not sorry for nothing.”
“It is going to be big man. It will be probably the first domestic terrorism attack in the whole of the UK. It’s going to be me,” he added.
Graham was said to be motivated by a “hatred and contempt for the UK government” which he saw as “tyrannical and oppressive of working-class people.”
“He also appeared to blame the government for much that was unsatisfactory in his own life,” Annabel Darlow KC, prosecuting, told the jury.
In a document, which he started in May 2022, Graham stated he intended to start a bombing campaign and would end his bombing spree by carrying out a shooting with an FGC-9 MkII – a functioning gun with lethal capability that could be made using a 3D printer.
Graham said he wanted to kill and injure at least 50 people and any more would be “a blessing”.
Over the following 12 months, “he worked to try to bring his deadly plans closer to fruition,” Ms Darlow said.
Read more from Sky News:
Police watchdog to investigate ‘any missed opportunities’ after boy and father found dead
Man arrested as part of investigation into Daniel Khalife’s alleged prison escape
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
‘It is my responsibility to do this’
Graham allegedly acquired a large number of instruction documents with the information needed to construct bombs, firearms and ammunition, and obtained chemicals and a 3D printer.
He wrote a manual he titled the “Freedom Encyclopaedia,” intended to help others to commit their own acts of terrorism, the prosecutor told the jury, which included instructions on how to build shotguns, nail bombs, explosives and detonators.
In a video made in his bedroom on 9 August 2022, Graham stated: “If terrorism is standing up for what you think is right, standing up for the working class people of this country, most of us can’t afford to heat our homes or afford food, there needs to be someone to fix this problem. It is my responsibility to do this.”
Graham denies preparing acts of terrorism, disseminating terrorist publications and possession of material useful for terrorism.
