'Bristol terror student wanted to blow up Broadmead'
It is claimed Isa Ibrahim made himself the device intending to follow in the footsteps of the 9/11 and 7/7 bombers.
Winchester Crown Court heard how the student, originally called Andrew, appeared to hatch the plan to bomb the shopping centre after converting to Islam in 2006.
When police raided his flat at Comb Paddock, Westbury-on-Trym, in April 2008, they found a white cotton vest, similar to those worn by suicide bombers, hanging on the back of the bedroom door.
There was also a family-sized biscuit tin containing a homemade explosive in the fridge at the one-bedroom property. Police also discovered an electrical circuit with button detonator.
During the opening day of the trial yesterday, the jury was shown CCTV stills of a trip he made to The Mall Bristol, formerly know as the Galleries, on April 7, 2008.
He was seen walking around the shopping centre, from top to bottom, recording detailed notes in his phone.
On it, he recorded positions of lifts, and the time it took him to exit the building without running.
The court heard that on April 7, 2008, he was captured on CCTV in the centre of Bristol.
After visiting Boots in St Augustine's Parade, but not buying anything, he walked by Syndicate nightclub and was then seen to enter and walk around The Mall.
The police managed to get a full record of the notes he made on his mobile phone, detailing positions of shops such as Robert Dyas and Game, as well as the lifts and the food court.
Ibrahim, 20, denies making an explosive substance, hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), with the intention to endanger life, or cause serious injury.
He also denies researching how to manufacture explosives, buying materials to make them and detonate them, as well as making them.
He also denies identifying a place to detonate a bomb, but has pleaded guilty to a separate charge of making an explosive substance.
Ibrahim, with bushy dark hair and wearing a navy blue polo shirt with horizontal stripes, sat in the dock flanked by four security officers.
Directly above him, in the public gallery, his parents sat watching.
The court heard they had disowned him after he became involved in drugs, before he converted to Islam.
Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, told the court that in the four to five months leading up to the arrest, Ibrahim had dressed in Islamic clothes and talked about the 9/11 suicide attacks on the New York Twin Towers in 2001 as a justified response to US aggression against Muslims.
Mr Ellison told the jury: "He said he would like to go to Iraq or Palestine and join the fighting. He said the UK was like living in a dirty toilet with a minefield outside."
Mr Ellison said that from December 2007 Ibrahim began to concentrate on media connected to Palestine, as well as militant Muslim groups and radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza.
The court heard that in March 2008 Ibrahim was looking into the background and beliefs of those responsible for the suicide bombings in London in July, 2005.
Mr Ellison said: "By March 2008, much of his focus was on suicide operations in Iraq and elsewhere and acts of martyrdom being one of the highest acts of faith, bringing great rewards in heaven."
Speaking about his visit to The Mall, Mr Ellison said: "He made a series of circuits of each level, from the top floor to the ground floor.
"There is no evidence he made or received calls. He made no purchases and he visited no shops. He just walked around and looked at his right hand."
The jury also heard Ibrahim involved himself in computer games and attended City of Bristol College, where he studied chemistry, biology, history and English at AS A-level.
All the while, said Mr Ellison, he was immersing himself more and more into the kind of extremist ideology preached by the likes of Osama bin Laden.
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 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 examining Islamic extremism.
Mr Ellison said Ibrahim was also heard to ask questions at college about germ warfare.
The prosecution has catalogued Ibrahim's use of search terms on the internet, the court heard.
They included him downloading a "living will" speech made by London suicide bomber Mohammed Sadique Khan, in which he said: "Are words are dead until we give them life with our blood?"
The jury has been told of Ibrahim's extensive searches on the internet, researching websites involving suicide bombers and bomb making.
One of his internet searches included a look at terror guide The Anarchist's Cookbook, which details how to make explosives, the court heard. Ibrahim also researched British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, who admitted attempting to detonate a bomb on an aircraft with a device hidden in his shoe.
Ibrahim is said to have mentioned to fellow chemistry students that he could make a bomb, and is even said to have inquired if his college would miss a chemical used for homemade bombs.
The case continues.
