Accused B.C. terrorists planned distraction bomb in Victoria strip club: trial
Posted Apr 9, 2015 12:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER – A B.C. man accused of plotting to blow up the provincial legislature proposed detonating pressure-cooker bombs in the washroom of a Victoria strip club as a distraction from his main target, a court has heard.
In video played Thursday for a B.C. Supreme Court jury, John Nuttall is seen telling an undercover officer that his plan to attack Monty’s Showroom Pub in the city’s downtown would avoid targeting women and children.
“It was my second home when I was an (infidel),” he says. “The only girls who are going to be killed are hookers.”
His wife and co-accused Amanda Korody agrees, adding that “the only reason a woman is going to be killed in a men’s washroom is if she’s turning a trick.”
The recordings were made in June 2013 using hidden cameras as part of a sophisticated police sting involving more than 240 officers.
An undercover officer took the couple on a three-day trip to Kelowna, B.C., where he promised they would be able to work on their terrorist plot away from interruption, a jury has heard.
Video from that trip shows Nuttall pacing the hotel room and growing excited when Korody suggests they plant the bombs in the drained water tank of a toilet at the strip club.
“She’s evil,” he yells, describing her idea as brilliant.
“What did I tell you, brother?” he asks the undercover officer, who is posing as an extremist and whose identity is protected.
“She’s the rock upon which I stand,” he adds, as the officer commends the plan.
Nuttall later tells the officer that an accomplice has convinced him to forego his original plan to fire off homemade rockets and instead to use pressure-cooker bombs, for reasons of convenience and speed. The trial has heard that accomplice was another undercover officer.
Video played in court on Wednesday showed the accomplice reprimanding Nuttall for failing to come up with a viable terrorist plot, reminding him how much money had been spent to set up the Okanagan safe house.
Nuttall and Korody have previously said they see themselves as caught up in a war between the western world and Islam.
Nuttall said he believes Allah allowed him to be born in Canada in order to wage jihad behind enemy lines.
The two recently converted Muslims have pleaded not guilty to four terrorism-related charges.
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