An Islamic convert found with a bomb at his Bristol home went shopping for the ingredients at Broadmead shopping centre.

It is claimed 20-year-old chemistry student Isa Ibrahim became infatuated with the cult of hate against the people of the West, fuelled by Muslim extremists, and he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his 9/11 and 77 hero martyrs.

Friends said how the drug addict changed his Western-style of dress, grew a long beard and adopted the garb of a Muslim.

When police raided his one-bedroom flat at Comb Paddock, Westbury-on-Trym, in April 2008, in a fridge they found a family sized biscuit tin containing a home made explosive, an electrical circuit with button detonator and, hanging on the back of a bedroom door, a white cotton vest with panels at the front and back similar to those worn by suicide bombers.

Ibrahim, a former public schoolboy, denies making an explosive substance with intent, in that he made the explosive hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD) with the intention to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the UK.

He also denies the preparation of terrorism acts, in that he researched the manufacture of explosives, bought materials to make them, made them and also bought materials to detonate them – as well as identifying a place to do so.

He has pleaded guilty to simply making an explosive substance.

On day two of his trial at Winchester Crown Court Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, said that on April 7 last year Ibrahim was captured on CCTV making circuits of the Galleries, from top to bottom.

Notes later recovered from his mobile phone seemed to show he had made notes of the positions of litter bins and lifts, the position of the densely-populated food court, as well as the number of seconds it would take to walk or run from the scene.

Mr Ellison told the jury: "That he had decided to carry out a reconnoitre of the shopping centre is, we suggest, significant evidence in terms that he made HMTD with the intention of using it to endanger life."

Mr Ellison charted several trips Ibrahim made to Bristol city centre in the days leading up to his arrest, many of them captured on store or street CCTV.

On April 9 he went to Oswald Bailey in Horsefair and bought a £1.99 pack of 24 Gelert solid fuel tablets – made of hexamine, an ingredient of HMTD.

He then went to Boots in Broadmead and bought two 200ml bottles of hydrogen peroxide bleach for £2.59, before being seen near the Al Baseera mosque.

Later that day he was seen visiting Boots in St Augustine's Parade, and walking near to the nail varnish and nail varnish remover.

The court heard he finished his day at home, surfing the internet for web pages related to making HMTD.

Mr Ellison said that on the next day Ibrahim did more bomb-making research on the internet at his City of Bristol College.

Later he was captured on camera as he went to Maplins on Gloucester Road and hurriedly bought two 1.44w bulbs, a 4AA battery box, T-shaped clip, battery holder, electrical wire and a square push button.

This, said Mr Ellison, was consistent with an attempt to make a crude explosive device.

The jury was played a video of Ibrahim as, later that day, he rolled up his kamise garment and took off his skull cap and bought three 200ml bottles of hydrogen peroxide from Boots in Broadmead., before buying 200g of bicarbonate of soda at Tesco Metro.

As he did so, the court heard, he texted his friend, Hashi Omer, saying: "lol (laughs out loud) was listening to nasheed (a song) from a video and some Iraqi guy talks about wiping out an entire American convoy and the damn headphones came out and put it on speaker."

The jury was shown detailed evidence of more of Ibrahim's internet searching, on websites concerning how to build a suicide belt and suicide bombers giving "living wills", proclaiming they were making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their faith, and in order to kill "non-believers".

The jury was also shown a clip from a documentary Ibrahim is said to have viewed, entitled A History of Suicide Bombing, which highlighted that suicide bombers brought indiscriminate death.

Mr Ellison said the student's descent into this mind-set was against a background of problems in his life.

The court was told that at the beginning of 2007 he had a drug addiction and was homeless aged 18.

With the help of the Priority Youth Housing group he was able to get hostel accommodation in St Georges Road, Bristol, where it was noted that he appeared to be a devout Muslim but would lapse into Western clothes during times of drug misuse.

Ibrahim's friend Jack Everson told how Ibrahim had said his parents had disowned him and he would speak of Abu Hamza and Osama Bin Laden.

The jury also heard Ibrahim got a large number of books from Bristol library on subjects such as why there was 9/11 and examining Islamic extremism.

The case continues.