A man who said he would have bombed Trafford Centre managed to avoid a terrorism charge because of his Facebook settings.
Leroy McCarthy, 22, who went by the name Abdullah Mahmood, made the comment to police officers after he was arrested for a series of previous offensive posts, including one where he spoke about bombing Furness General Hospital, in Cumbria.
But McCarthy, who described himself as a ‘soldier of Allah’, was not charged with a terrorism offence because of his social media settings.
Lee Dacre, prosecuting, told Furness Magistrate’s Court, on Monday: ‘He would have been here today on a terrorism charge but for the settings on his Facebook.
‘It is a legal technicality.’
Click to enlarge: One of the Facebook posts (Picture: Ben Lack Photography)
He told his 340 online friends: ‘They wouldn’t be able to evacuate all of FGH’s (Furness General Hospital) patients in time before at least one of the three explosions.’
McCarthy, from Hall Street, Barrow, who has 14 months left on licence after his release in June for assaulting his partner, also wrote: ‘14 months then it’s passport and off to join my people’s cause. I cannot wait to turn my back on the UK.’
He had also mocked murdered soldier Lee Rigby, who he called a ‘white coward who invades countries and rapes people’, the court heard.
He added: ‘A few months left and all my brothers are free. All them months of planning and it will be like a belated bonfire night for all those involved.’
McCarthy was know as Abdullah Mahmood online (Picture: Cascade)
After he was arrested on a malicious communications charge on October 7, he told officers ‘if he was going to bomb somewhere it would be the Trafford Centre’, the court heard.
Maureen Fawcett, defending, said: ‘He accepts the postings would have been grossly offensive and upsetting, but they were taken out of context.
‘He had fallen out with his sister who works at the hospital.
‘He has also never been abroad on a lads’ holiday and he wanted to leave the UK to get his life back on track.’
‘He reverted to become a Muslim when he was released from prison in 2015 and he is more peaceful since then. He had taken about 20 Valium on the day he posted these.
Other posts were described as anti-Semitic and homophobic.
McCarthy was jailed for 18 weeks, ordered to pay £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £115.
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