A 20-year-old is facing a sentence “measured in years” after being found guilty of possessing a bomb-making video explaining how to make a type of explosive previously used in terror attacks in the UK.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court deliberated for under two hours before unanimously convicting Adam Mahmood of a single count of possessing a recording likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
A week-long trial was told the TikTok user had more than 27,000 followers and asked another user of the site to send him the instructional video via a messaging app.
Mahmood, of Platt Brook Way, Sheldon, Birmingham, told jurors he initially watched the video on fast-forward, had then skipped over parts of the film and “didn’t really think anything of it”.
Opening the case for the Crown last week, prosecutor Sahil Sinha said a photograph of Mahmood associated with his social media account showed him wearing a balaclava and featured various weapons, including an axe and a sword.
Mr Sinha told jurors the case centred on a video file found on Mahmood’s phone after his arrest in April 2024, which also led to the discovery of several knives and two sharpeners in his bedroom.
The court heard the 14-minute 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 the 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”.
Mahmood, a former motor mechanics student who was on universal credit when he was arrested, pursed his lips and looked downwards after the jury returned its verdict.
The court heard Mahmood sent another TikTok user a message of thanks soon after receiving the video, filmed in a kitchen by a man wearing camouflage gear, while another film found on Mahmood’s phone detailed “How Hamas rockets are made”.
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.
Defence barrister Ben Hargreaves applied for the court to extend Mahmood’s tag-monitored bail until he is sentenced on November 19.
Mahmood was facing a term “measured in years not months” but there had been no issues throughout his time on bail, Mr Hargreaves argued.
Rejecting the application for bail to be extended, Judge Simon Drew KC said: “This is obviously an extremely serious case, as all of these cases are.
“I have seen material that your client engaged in looking at beyond the indictment. It’s clearly an area that raises serious issues of risk.
“Now that he has been convicted I think we are in a very different position.”
Adjourning the case for pre-sentence reports to assess dangerousness and conduct an assessment of risk, the judge 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.”
