The 'extraordinary, ordinary' man who talked down a would-be hospital bomber (2025)

'At the end, your courage failed you and the kind thoughtfulness of a passing stranger saved you and those you targeted'

A judge has heaped praise on an 'extraordinary, ordinary' man who talked down a would-be hospital maternity unit bomber planning to 'kill as many nurses as possible'.

Nathan Newby, a patient at the time, noticed Mohammad Farooq, who was armed with a homemade pressure cooker bomb, as he stood having a cigarette outside St James's Hospital in Leeds. A court heard Mr Newby 'realised something was amiss', but began to talk to Farooq instead of walking away.

Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting at a sentencing hearing on Friday in which Farooq was jailed for a minimum of 37 years, said: "That simple act of kindness almost certainly saved many lives that night because, as the defendant was later to tell the police officers who arrested him, Mr Newby succeeded in 'talking him down'."

Mr Sandiford said Farooq, who had worked at the hospital, told Mr Newby about his grievances towards his colleagues and his plan to take the bomb into the hospital and 'kill as many nurses as possible'. But Sheffield Crown Court heard Mr Newby stayed with the defendant and eventually persuaded him to move away from the building, and hand over his phone to call the police.

An investigation found Farooq had become self-radicalised through accessing extremist material online, and had obtained bomb-making instructions in a magazine published by Al Qaeda to encourage lone wolf terrorist attacks against the West.

Farooq, 29, admitted firearms offences, possessing an explosive substance with intent and having a document likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism. He was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism after a trial last year.

The pressure cooker bomb was modelled on those detonated at the 2013 Boston Marathon in the US, but with twice the amount of explosives, the court heard. Farooq was said to have 'lost his bottle' after talking to Mr Newby.

Judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, heard Farooq targeted the hospital as his 'Plan B' after first travelling to the American base at RAF Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire, but failing to get in due to the high security. Mrs Cheema-Grubb jailed him for life and said of Mr Newby: "He's an extraordinary, ordinary man whose decency and kindness on January 20, 2023, prevented an atrocity in a maternity wing of a major British hospital."

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She said Mr Newby was a 'modest and gentle man whose evidence was among the most remarkable this court has ever heard'.

The judge told Farooq: "This was deliberately to cause maximum damage to life. But at the end, your courage failed you and the kind thoughtfulness of a passing stranger saved you and those you targeted. You were prepared to do the unthinkable. To explode a bomb in a hospital.

"Your responsibility is not reduced by the fact that you lost your bottle and were persuaded, while in emotional turmoil, to stand down and let Mr Newby call the police."

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said 'multiple deaths were risked and were likely to be caused' as he 'decided to carry out an atrocity at the place where dedicated staff look after vulnerable ill citizens'.

Prosecutors told a jury last year how the defendant had become a 'self-radicalised lone wolf terrorist', inspired by the Islamic State group. Although Farooq did not give evidence in his trial, his lawyers claimed he was not motivated by ideology, arguing instead that he worked at the hospital and had a long-running grievance with nurses on his ward.

The court heard how, when he arrived at the hospital, he had planned to use a bomb threat to evacuate part of the hospital so he could attack fleeing workers with knives before using an imitation firearm to incite police to shoot him dead. But the bomb threat he sent in a text to an off-duty nurse was not seen for almost an hour, and the full-scale evacuation he had hoped for did not happen.

Prosecutor Mr Sandiford said Farooq came up with a new plan to wait in a hospital cafe for a staff shift change and detonate his device. But he told the court that 'luck intervened again' because Mr Newby was standing outside.

Detective Superintendent Paul Greenwood, head of investigations for Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: "Farooq came dangerously close to harming innocent people. Thanks to the bravery of Nathan Newby, he never fully realised his plans and has instead been forced to face the long-term consequences of his extreme ideology and deep-seated grievances."