UK Edition
Devon teenager planted homemade bomb on Underground after watching YouTube explosions videos, courts hears
Damon Smith, 20, planted a ball bearing bomb on a Tube train after taking pictures of himself next to the mastermind behind the 2015 Paris terror attacks, the court heard.
The student is alleged to have left the explosive device on a Jubilee Line carriage at North Greenwich station on October 20 - before heading off to his morning lecture.
In his trial at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, it emerged that two members of the public spotted the explosive-filled rucksack and alerted the driver at North Greenwich station.
But the driver thought it was lost property and took it with him into his cab but when he looked inside was horrified to see wires protruding from the back of the clock.
Both the train and platform at North Greenwich were evacuated and the device was then made safe by a cutting wire.
Had the device detonated as planned it would have gone off just as passengers were leaving the platform.
Police found Smith was obsessed with weapons and had pictures of ISIS fighters on his computer, jurors heard.
He stood in front of the TV to take a picture of himself with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Brussels-born Islamic terrorist killed in a raid after the 2015 attacks in France which claimed the lives of 130 people.
Smith claims the device he planted was only a smoke bomb - and he used ball bearings just to make it look "real".
However, from about 11.30pm onwards Smith began carrying out Google searches to try and find news about the terror attack.
Jonathan Rees QC, prosecuting said: "The prosecution say that the defendant build an improvised explosive device which he intended would explode and endanger the lives of those travelling in that tube train or, at the very least, cause serious damage to the train itself."
Smith grew up in Newton Abbot in Devon but had moved to south London with his mother after being offered a place at the London Metropolitan University to study computer forensics.
He told officers that he had been brought up a Christian but thought Islam was "more true" because the Quran predicted scientific facts like finger prints.
Police found a blank-firing, self-loading pistol at his address and Smith had uploaded a video of him firing the gun to YouTube.
He also had a carbon-dioxide powered revolver designed to fire ball bearings and a sheath knife which had also featured in YouTube videos.
On his Facebook account he had posted a picture of himself holding handcuffs while sporting a Guy Fawkes mask and a knuckle duster.
Jurors heard Smith suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, meaning he has difficulty with social interaction and can become fixated on certain activities.
Smith, of Abbeyfield Road, Bermondsey, southeast London, denies possession of an explosive substance with intention to endanger life and cause serious injury.
Jurors were told that on Wednesday morning he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of perpetrating a bomb hoax.
He is alleged to have made or acquired the substance between October 18 and October 21contrary to section 3(1)(b) Explosive Substances Act 1883.
The trial continues.