Student appears in court charged over 'bomb' found on London tube
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Version 0 of 1. A first-year university student charged with possessing explosives following a bomb alert on London’s tube network is to appear at the Old Bailey next month. Damon Smith, 19, smiled, waved to the public gallery and gave a thumbs-up to his lawyer during a hearing at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday. Wearing a grey sweater and trousers, he spoke only to confirm his name, age and address. From the public gallery, Smith’s mother interrupted the hearing, shouting: “He doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s got Asperger’s [syndrome].” North Greenwich station was shut down on 20 October after passengers spotted an unaccompanied rucksack. It was initially treated as lost property and handed to the driver, who looked in the bag and saw it contained a homemade explosive device, at which point he raised the alarm. Police described the device as “viable”. Smith, 19, was Tasered during his arrest on Holloway Road the following day. A street in the Devon town of Newton Abbot was sealed off and residents evacuated as counter-terrorism officers searched his former home on Saturday, finding another “suspicious device” that was later declared “not viable”. Smith lived at the property with his mother until late summer, when he moved to London to attend university. He enrolled at London Metropolitan university three weeks before the bomb alert, a spokesman for the university confirmed. Smith was charged under the Explosive Substances Act 1883 with making or owning an explosive substance with intent to injure or endanger lives. “He has been charged following the discovery of a suspicious item on a tube train at North Greenwich underground station on Thursday 20 October,” the Metropolitan police said. Senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot refused bail and said Smith would be remanded in custody until his next hearing at the Old Bailey on 17 November. |