According to a report today Nicky Reilly, the Exeter bomber, appears to have been radicalised on-line by men associated with al-Qaeda and operating from the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Reilly, who has a mental age of 10, attempted to set off a bomb in a busy restaurant in May of this year and yesterday admitted charges of attempted murder and preparing terrorist attacks. He converted to Islam in 2002, but only researched bomb making from the start of this year.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the men ‘groomed’ Reilly via You Tube. It seems they not only persuaded him to launch an attack on the general public, rather than police officers or civil servants, but also provided him with information on bomb making websites. Reilly had watched 4,262 videos on You Tube since November 2006, mainly of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and of Allied soldiers in Iraq.
It appears as if Reilly was put in touch with these men by British-based radicals in Plymouth, who encouraged him to visit jihadist chat rooms.
