ULTIMATE BETRAYAL
Parsons Green bomber guilty after using Brit couple’s home to build Mother of Satan bomb while they were on holiday
THE teen found guilty of attempted murder after trying to blow up a Tube secretly built the Mother of Satan bomb while his Brit foster parents were on holiday.
Asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan, 18, was found guilty at the Old Bailey today after leaving the explosive device packed in a bucket with 2.2kg of screwdrivers, knives, nuts and bolts on the busy train.
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The teen was also found guilty of using a chemical to cause the terrifying explosion in the Parsons Green terror attack that injured dozens of people last September.
The Old Bailey heard Hassan wanted to cause "maximum" carnage to avenge the death of his father, who was blown up in Iraq more than 10 years before, and that he believed it was his "duty to hate Britain".
Hassan denied it, saying he only wanted to make a fire to fulfil a "fugitive fantasy" to be chased by Interpol which was inspired by action films.
The attack was a betrayal to the kind-hearted foster parents who had taken the teen in, with Penny and Ron Jones MBE on holiday in Blackpool as Hassan began to plot the attack.
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Mr and Mrs Jones, who did not give evidence, had contacted social services amid "significant concerns" for his mental health during that summer.
But it was while they were away that teen Hassan assembled the ingredients for homemade explosives in his bedroom in Sunbury, Surrey.
The teen used his student of the year award of a £20 Amazon voucher to buy one of the key chemicals for his bomb online, leaving the explosive on the District Line train to Wimbledon.
The teen then got off one stop before the bomb exploded.
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The full story of how the Parsons Green Tube explosion terror attack unfolded
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While the device failed to properly detonate, dozens of people were injured suffering facial burns after the explosion.
After planting the bomb, Hassan fled to Dover, where he was arrested the next day.
Today, Hassan was found guilty in court, with Judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave telling him: "Ahmed Hassan, you have been found guilty by this jury at the Old Bailey of attempted murder on overwhelming evidence.
"I am now going to discuss with counsel the arrangements and timings for sentencing you."
Hassan sat with head bowed and gave no reaction to his conviction.
It can now be reported he told a psychologist he was inspired by Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible action films.
CCTV of Parsons Green bomb suspect Ahmed Hassan wearing Chelsea shirt
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Parsons Green bomb accused Ahmed Hassan destroys mobile phone with chemicals, hammer and oven in homemade video released by Met Police
A jury deliberated for just over four hours to find Hassan guilty of attempted murder on what Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said was "overwhelming evidence".
The court had heard Hassan told Home Office officials he was trained by Islamic State "to kill" after he arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry in 2015.
Commander Dean Haydon, head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, said Hassan kept his plans a secret from Prevent workers in Surrey.
The officer said: "I describe Hassan as an intelligent and articulate individual that is devious and cunning in equal measures.
"On the one hand he was appearing to engage with the (Prevent) programme but he kept secret what he was planning and plotting. We describe him as a lone actor."
On the bomb's potential, he said: "It was only through good fortune that it only partially exploded. If it had, without a doubt we would have been dealing with many fatalities."
The court had heard Hassan told Home Office officials he was trained by Islamic State "to kill" after he arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry in 2015.
He was taken in by foster parents Penny and Ron Jones MBE, and studied media and photography at Brooklands College in Weybridge, then beginning to plot a bomb attack in the summer holidays last year.
Speaking after the verdict, CPS Sue Hemming said: "It was only a matter of luck that the device did not work as he intended or it could easily have led to the loss of innocent lives."
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Gail Walker, principal of Brooklands College in Weybridge, Surrey, where Hassan studied a media course, said: "Ahmed Hassan, who was involved in the Parsons Green Tube bomb, was a student at Brooklands College. A change in his behaviour was noted and reported to Prevent by staff at the college.
"We have a robust safeguarding policy to ensure the safety of all students and staff and we have been assured that at no time were any students or staff at risk.
"Our recent Ofsted 'Good' inspection in November 2017, confirmed that the college 'provides a welcoming and safe environment for all students' and 'creates an ambitious culture where staff and students are expected and are keen to do their best'. This will continue to be our focus."
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