Man admits wanting to join terror group after watching ‘extreme’ YouTube videos

The defendant said that he went to college where he studied English, maths and cooking, and he was not religious until he started watching YouTube videos by a channel called BlackBeardGuy.

A man has told a court that he attempted to join so-called Islamic State in Somalia (Isis) after watching “extreme” videos on YouTube and TikTok but denies a charge of preparing acts of terrorism.

Mohamed Mohamoud, 22, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court, where he denies the single offence dating between October 1 2024 and March 5 2025.

Giving evidence, the Somali-born defendant was asked by his barrister Dominic Thomas: “Do you accept that you attempted to join IS?” to which he replied: “Yes I do.” And when asked by Mr Thomas: “If you were charged with that offence what would you do?” Mohamoud replied: “Plead guilty.” The defendant added that he admitted buying plane tickets and travelling to Somalia in a bid to join Isis but when asked by Mr Thomas if he intended to commit an act of terrorism or assist anyone else to do so, he said: “No.” Mohamoud told the court that he was born in Somalia but his parents separated when he was three and he was taken with his younger brother to live with his stepmother in the UAE.

He then lived between Somalia and the UAE until he moved in 2020 to live with his mother in Bristol at the age of 16 or 17, whom he had only seen once since his parents had split, and he said that they did not get on.

The defendant said that he went to college where he studied English, maths and cooking, and he was not religious until he started watching YouTube videos by a channel called BlackBeardGuy.

He said: “There were a lot of different videos relating to religion, I did watch a lot of it. It was extreme videos, not violence just people sitting there talking.

“They were discussing some law about infidel people who follow democracy, socialism, that are saying these things are disbeliever, they are saying the leaders and their soldiers and whole institutions are disbelief.” He added: “I was watching these videos against democracy and whatnot on TikTok and there was a video promoting IS.

“What happened was I was watching these videos, these people who do not belong to any group, so I was like ‘Yes, these groups who were fighting democracy or whatnot, they are doing something right’.” He said that he made a comment on the video that he wanted to emigrate and join “in this process”.

Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, has told the jury that Mohamoud travelled to the east African country in January 2025 in a bid to be a “martyr” for Isis but after failing to reach the group because of ongoing counter-terrorism operations he returned to the UK on March 3.

She said that he continued to keep in contact with Isis recruiters with whom he had made contact and told them: “Any time, you say the word, I will return.” The trial continues.