Bomb plot accused revealed plan to attack London Underground in web chat on Twitter

A man who was allegedly planning a suicide bomb attack on the Underground in London confirmed his intentions to an undercover investigator on Twitter and unwittingly invited him to take part, a court has heard.

Mohammed Rehman, 25, and his wife Sana Ahmed Khan, 24, both of Reading, are charged with preparing terrorist acts on or before May 28 this year.

They deny the charges. The attack was believed to have been planned to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 7/7 bombing, which killed 52 innocent people.

Around two weeks before their arrests, Rehman’s Twitter account came to the attention of anti-terrorism authorities.

Using the name Silent Bomber, he argued with and taunted other users after asking whether his target should be a “Westfield Shopping Centre or London Underground”.

Prosecutor Tony Badenoch told an Old Bailey jury an undercover investigator, who used the name Abu Mohammed, then engaged with Rehman in a private conversation.

He said: “Silent Bomber revealed his true intentions, asking ’how dumb these Kuffar are lol’.”

Rehman also told the officer that he was “preparing against them” before his account was suspended, but he re-activated it under slightly different details a week later.

“He told the undercover investigator that he was preparing for a Istishaadi (martyr) operation,” Badenoch said.

“The level of commitment to an atrocity was perfectly clear, as Mohammed Rehman also asked the undercover investigator if he wanted to join him in a joint operation or whether he preferred to follow the lone-wolf route.”

Badenoch added: “The activities were identified as a threat to the United Kingdom.”

Meanwhile, he allegedly bought ingredients for explosives on eBay with the help of his secret wife, and even filmed himself testing a bomb in his back garden.

When the would-be suicide bomber was arrested on May 28, he boasted of having a “surprise” for police.

The court heard Rehman said he had rigged up a bomb which could be triggered at the touch of a button at his bedside, saying: “Nobody gets in the way of my Jihad.”

What officers actually found were a Jihadi John-style hunting knife and chemicals for a bomb that could have caused “multiple fatalities” and was just days from being completed.