October 16, 2008	Thursday	Shawwal 16, 1429

LONDON, Oct 15: A Muslim convert pleaded guilty to a failed suicide bomb attack at a city centre restaurant in Devon.

Nicky Reilly, 22, who changed his name to Mohammed Rashid Saeed-Alim after converting, admitted on Wednesday to have tried to attack the Giraffe restaurant, in Exeter, at lunchtime on May 22.

The Guardian said counter-terrorist police were searching for two men they believed encouraged Reilly, who has a history of mental illness, via an extremist website.

Reilly, appearing at the Old Bailey via a video link, admitted attempting to murder and using the internet to research how to make bombs using caustic soda, paraffin, nails and soft drinks bottles.

Senior prosecutor Stuart Baker said Reilly told police he wanted to kill himself and as many people as possible.

“He [said] he intended to martyr himself and to kill others in the restaurant,” Baker said.

“In his words, this was in retaliation for the oppression of Muslims around the world and in relation to world events of recent years.”

Reilly suffered serious burns to his face and arms after one of the bombs exploded in his hands as he tried to assemble it.

A CCTV camera recorded him staggering from the restaurant before he was arrested.

The judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, said Reilly had considered a number of targets in Plymouth before choosing the restaurant.

He said Reilly had been influenced by other people, who had not been identified.

“He was in frequent touch with apparently two other people ... with whom he discussed his plans and from whom he received a certain amount of encouragement and information over the internet.

Devon’s deputy chief constable Tony Melville, said Reilly, who also has Asperger’s syndrome, had been preyed upon by extremists he had met near his home.

A police search of the would-be bomber’s house revealed a suicide note quoting Osama bin Laden and calling on Britain to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sources said counter-terrorist police were aware of Reilly and suspected he had loose links to known Islamic extremists.

Reilly’s mother Kim with whom he lived at the time of the attack, wept in the public gallery above the court as she watched him on the video link.

She has previously said her son’s special needs made him an easy target for extremists.