Escaped prisoner found with nail bomb planned to blow up Blackpool bank after watching documentary

Alan Murphy planned an attack on the HSBC bank on Newhouse Road after watching the documentary Dirty Money: Cartel Bank.

The documentary reported alleged connections between the bank and the funding of terrorism and drug cartels.

Judge Neil Flewitt KC said the 62-year-old was “unlawfully at large” in November 2020, after absconding from prison, and was living in a camper van next to a soup kitchen in the resort.

When police came to see the defendant on November 26 that year for a safeguarding check, because he hoped to move into other accommodation, he gave a false name, but after fingerprints revealed his identity he was asked whether he had a gun, the court heard.

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Judge Flewitt said: “It was then you told them you had a gun and an improvised explosive device in your rucksack.”

A search revealed the explosive, which Joe Allman, prosecuting, described as a nail bomb, as well as a BB gun which had been painted black, a homemade shotgun and a kitchen knife.

The judge said: “At that point, you made the comment to one of the police officers that you were going to blow up a bank you had seen on a TV show.”

The court heard Murphy, who appeared by video link from HMP Preston, had pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing an imitation firearm in a public place, possession of a knife in a public place and having in his possession an explosive substance with intent to cause serious injury to property.

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At a trial at Preston Crown Court earlier this year, he was acquitted of possessing the explosive with intent to endanger life.

The court heard Murphy had submitted a basis of plea in which he said he had been “outraged” at “nefarious activity” by HSBC after watching the documentary and intended to demonstrate his grievances by damaging the Blackpool branch or the cars of employees in the car park, but did not want to hurt anyone.

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The court heard he intended his actions to “come to the attention of the media and be widely reported, causing widespread fear, damage to the reputation of HSBC bank and lead to a change in the policy of the bank”.

He was jailed for 15 years at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday and given an extended licence period of five years after Judge Flewitt ruled he was a dangerous offender who the public required protection from.

Sentencing him, Judge Flewitt said: “I have no doubt your plan, if carried out, would have put at risk the life of anyone who happened to be in or passing the car park when it exploded.”

Mr Allman said the case was not being treated as terrorism because the offences were not in pursuit of an ideological cause.

He added: “It was seemingly an exercise in pursuit of a single idea rather than a system of ideas.”

The judge added: “You could describe it as an obsession.”

Richard Littler KC, defending, said Murphy never intended to put anyone’s life in danger.

He said: “The defendant, in his mind, explained how he tried to remove and eliminate that risk, that it was never his intention.”