Former student convicted over bomb-making video had other ‘dangerous’ films

Counter-terrorism police have issued a photograph of weapons, including a machete and an axe, owned by a 20-year-old found guilty of possessing a bomb-making video.

Adam Mahmood, from Birmingham, was told he is facing a sentence “measured in years” after being found guilty on Monday of a single count of possessing a recording likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court were told the TikTok user’s account, featuring a photo of him wearing a balaclava, had 27,000 followers when he was arrested by anti-terror officers in April last year.

In a statement issued after Mahmood’s conviction, the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit said analysis of the defendant’s phone led to the recovery of a near 15-minute video which detailed how to make an explosive.

Former motor mechanics student Mahmood, of Platt Brook Way, Sheldon, thanked another social media user who sent him the video, which he had requested online.

Footage of executions was also found on his phone, police said, while a part-made sword was found at his home along with several other weapons, including knives.

Detective Chief Superintendent Alison Hurst, who leads Counter Terrorism Policing in the West Midlands, said: “Videos found on Mahmood’s phone were dangerous and showed extreme violence.

“The instructional video was assessed by an expert who considered that the guide was easy to follow even for someone with no previous training in explosive manufacturing and, therefore, incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands.”

Opening the case for the Crown last week, prosecutor Sahil Sinha said the bomb-making video, which was not in English and had a translation at the bottom, was last accessed on March 24 last year, having been created via the Telegram app in October 2023.

The prosecutor told Mahmood’s trial the video provided “a detailed guide” to producing an explosive substance with a detonator and shrapnel to make a complete bomb.

The type of explosive had previously been used in terrorist attacks, Mr Sinha said, including in those in this country, and was “too unstable to have viable commercial use”.

During police interviews on April 3 and 4 2024, the court heard, Mahmood agreed that the weapons found at his address were his, but claimed they were linked to an interest in a Turkish TV drama about the Ottoman Empire.

He denied being a terrorist or a supporter of the so-called Islamic State terror group.

He said of the video and the man filmed giving instructions: “It was going over my head as a person who failed science. I had no clue what he was saying.”

Adjourning the case until November for pre-sentence reports to assess dangerousness, Judge Simon Drew KC told Mahmood: “I have little, if any, choice but to remand you in custody.

“I have the public interest and public safety in mind and it seems to me that is the only proper conclusion I can reach.”