Asperger's Terrorist with Low IQ "Brainwashed by Pakistani Extremists" Old Bailey Hears

A vulnerable Muslim convert was persuaded online by shadowy Pakistan-based extremists into trying to carry out a suicide bomb attack on a busy restaurant.

Nicky Reilly, 22, who has Asperger’s syndrome and a mental age of 10, was directed how to build bombs filled with hundreds of nails, which he attempted to detonate at the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter in May. The devices went off prematurely, injuring only him.

As Reilly admitted at the Old Bailey yesterday charges of attempted murder and preparing terrorist attacks, counter-terrorism officials said that extremists had taken advantage of his low IQ to groom him.

Reilly, who converted to Islam in his mid-teens, is thought to have encountered British-based Muslim radicals in internet cafés near his council home in Plymouth, which he shared with his mother.

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Security sources said that radicals encouraged him to visit internet chat rooms and other websites where he encountered the men based in Pakistan who helped to mould a violent hatred of the West. Reilly, who appeared in court as Mohamad Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed Alim, set up his own page on YouTube, Chechen 233, where he discussed with the men who his targets should be. They answered his questions and directed him to bomb-making websites.

Reilly admitted yesterday researching how to make improvised explosive devices, investigating potential targets and acquiring components for them.