An autistic man who planted a home-made bomb on a busy Tube train has been jailed for 15 years.
Damon Smith, 20, packed the device with gunpowder and metal ball bearings and left it on a Jubilee Line train on 20 October 2016.
Had the timer not failed, the bomb would have exploded just as people were being ordered off the platform at North Greenwich station.
Smith claimed the bomb was a Halloween prank during his trial at the Old Bailey, but earlier this month Judge Richard Marks QC found him guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent.
Smith was sentenced to 15 years in a young offenders' institution, with an extended period of five years on license.
Judge Marks told the defendant: "Quite what your motives were and what your true thinking was in acting as you did is difficult to discern with any degree of clarity or certainty.
"Whatever the position, the seriousness of what you did cannot be overstated, not least against the background of the fear in which we all live from the use of bombs here and around the world, an all too timely reminder of which were the events in Manchester earlier this week."
Smith's defence had argued that the root cause of his actions were in his autistic disability. He said he had been inspired after watching a bomb prank on YouTube channel Trollstation.
Smith's barrister, Richard Carey-Hughes QC, mitigated by stating that Smith was "sorry" for the fear and disturbance he caused and has "learned his lesson".
"We asked him this morning 'Would you make another bomb?' and he said 'No, never, I don't want to be in jail'," said Mr Carey-Hughes.
CCTV video of Smith showed him travelling on the Jubilee Line, before exiting the Tube without the rucksack containing the bomb.
There were at least 10 passengers in the carriage at the time, some of whom spotted the abandoned rucksack and alerted the driver.
The court was told that the driver believed the bag was only lost property and took it into his cab to continue the journey to North Greenwich.
However, during the journey the driver noticed wires coming out of the rucksack. He raised the alarm as the train pulled into the platform.
After departing the Jubilee Line, Smith went on to college. He checked the internet for news of his "prank" when he returned home.
Smith told the arresting counter-terrorism officers that he had made the bomb, but that it was only meant to spew harmless smoke as a Halloween joke.
When police searched Smith's home in Rotherhithe, south London, they found materials revealing his fixation with guns, explosives and other weapons.
Officers seized a blank-firing self-loading pistol and a BB gun, both bought legally, as well as a knuckleduster and a knife which he had boasted about in a video posted online.
Police also found scraps of paper with bomb-making instructions written on them, as well as a "shopping list" of components.
Smith informed the officers he was interested in Islam, but was not an extremist, though he though he had posed next to an image of the man alleged to have masterminded the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.
Expert testimony was read out in court confirming that Smith had an autism spectrum disorder.
In court, Richard Carey-Hughes QC said: "This is a difficult climate to ask for mercy for someone convicted
of this type of offence.
"Nevertheless, we do so and we invite my Lord to extend mercy. This case is different. It seems unique and so is this young man."
Smith is eligible for parole in 2024.
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