Failed asylum seeker jailed after ‘foolish’ MI5 bomb hoax
Julian Valente Pereira made the bomb hoax at the security service base at Thames House the day after being given a deportation notice
A failed asylum seeker has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for planting a fake stick of dynamite outside MI5 headquarters on New Year’s Day.
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Brazilian national Julian Valente Pereira, 33, made the bomb hoax at the security service base at Thames House, in central London, on January 1 – the day after being given a deportation notice.
Pereira came to the UK with permission to work in July 2018 and went on to claim asylum, which was later rejected.
Prosecutor Shannon Revel had said he wanted “maximum attention” on his complaints against the Home Office, after the long-running failed bid for permission to stay in Britain.
CCTV footage showed Pereira stuffing paperwork about his immigration case through the doors of the MI5 building, then retrieving the fake explosive from his bag.
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He threw it on the pavement with what appeared to be a fuse hanging out of the top of the brown cylinder.
A bomb expert was called and found the device was made from rolled-up A4 paper, brown masking tape, and string.
The incident coincided with a New Year’s Day parade taking place in the capital.
The court was told the defendant, who was living in an asylum hotel in Uxbridge, west London, had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Giving evidence, Pereira said the device he left outside MI5 would not have been mistaken for an explosive.
After a trial at City of London Magistrates’ Court, Pereira was found guilty in February of placing an article with the intention of inducing another to believe the item was going to explode.
Sentencing at the Old Bailey on Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC jailed him for two years and six months.
The judge said the defendant “may well” be deported from the UK.
Judge Lucraft noted police concerns at the time that the fake dynamite was a “genuine explosive”, and that dealing with the incident “diverted them from other things”.
Even though officers identified it as a hoax in under an hour, concerns remained the dummy device could have been “a diversionary tactic in preparation for another incident elsewhere”, Judge Lucraft said.
He told the defendant: “You are of good character, demonstrating some remorse for what you did, expressing regret and sorrow for your actions that day.
“You accept now that what you did was foolish.”