Overview
- Julian Valente Pereira was jailed at the Old Bailey for two years and six months for placing a device meant to make others believe it would explode.
- The Brazilian national left the fake dynamite outside MI5’s Thames House on New Year’s Day, a day after receiving a deportation notice.
- CCTV showed him pushing immigration papers through the doors before dropping the item, which bomb experts found was rolled paper, tape and string and declared a hoax within an hour.
- Judge Mark Lucraft KC said police initially treated the device as a genuine explosive and that the response diverted resources during London’s New Year’s Day events.
- The court heard he has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, expressed remorse for what he called a foolish act, and now faces likely deportation after his term.