A TikToker who downloaded a bomb-making video believed to have been used by the Manchester Arena terrorist has been jailed.
Adam Mahmood, then 18, had more than 27,000 followers on TikTok when he asked another user for the bomb-making video, believed to have been used in the Manchester Arena bombing and in a failed attempt to blow up a London Underground train at Parsons Green, London.
He was found guilty of a single count of possessing a recording likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism after a week-long trial in September.
The nearly 15-minute footage gave detailed instructions on producing a homemade explosive known as the “mother of Satan” and a detonator, as well as how to pack the bomb with ball bearings to make it more deadly, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Mahmood received the video on Telegram in October 2023, and last accessed the video in March 2024, about a week before his arrest.
When raiding the semi-detached house in Birmingham where Mahmood lived with his parents and two brothers, police found an “arsenal of weapons” in his bedroom, including several knives, a ball bearing gun and ball bearings.
His TikTok profile showed Mahmood, then 18, from Garrett’s Green, Birmingham, wearing a balaclava with a black Islamic flag behind him and weapons including a bow and arrow, an axe and a sword.
Police discovered the bomb-making video on his phone, as well as Islamic State propaganda praising martyrdom and videos of executions and beheadings.
Weapons defended as ‘cosplay’
Mahmood, now 20, claimed he was not an extremist and had skimmed through the bomb-making video, missing critical sections.
He also told the court the weapons displayed on his bedroom wall were memorabilia linked to TV or gaming, and the weapons were for “cosplay”.
But Judge Simon Drew KC said the ball bearings in Mahmood’s room showed he was “at least contemplating assembling such a device”.
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“You deliberately saved this video to your phone. Its visuals and subtitles made clear it was a bomb-making guide,” he told Mahmood during sentencing and labelled him a “dangerous” individual.
Judge Drew said his phone indicates Mahmood had “a high level of interest in, and support for, prohibited terrorist organisations” and was “some way down the path to a deeper personal engagement in terrorist activities”.
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The judge also highlighted his “alarming display of medieval weapons”, adding: “The presence of such an arsenal in the bedroom of an 18-year-old was a clear warning sign – one that, regrettably, no responsible adult acted upon.”
Mahmood was sentenced to four years in youth detention and another three years on extended licence.
