Escaped convict tried to blow up bank after watching Netflix documentary | UK News

An escaped prisoner who was caught with a nail bomb, two imitation firearms and a knife planned to blow up a bank after watching a Netflix documentary.

Alan Murphy, 62, planned an attack on an HSBC bank in Blackpool after watching the documentary Dirty Money: Cartel Bank, which exposed the banking chain’s alleged links to terrorist and drug cartel financing.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday and was given an extended licence period of five years after Judge Neil Flewitt KC ruled he was a dangerous offender from whom the public needed protection.

Judge Flewitt said Murphy was “unlawfully at large” in November 2020 after escaping from prison and living in a camper van next to a soup kitchen in Blackpool.

When he was checked by police later that same month, he gave a false name, but his real identity was revealed by his fingerprints.

Officers asked Murphy if he had a weapon. He replied that he did, as well as an “improvised explosive device” in a backpack.

A subsequent search of the property found the explosive, described by the Public Prosecution Service as a nail bomb, as well as a black-painted BB gun, a homemade shotgun and a kitchen knife.

Read more from Sky News:
Jermaine Jenas sacked by BBC
Armed assailants kill 11 police officers in Pakistan
Andrew Tate under house arrest

“At that point you told one of the police officers that you were going to blow up a bank that you had seen on a television programme,” Judge Flewitt said.

Murphy, appearing via video-link from HMP Preston, pleaded guilty to two charges: possession of an imitation firearm in a public place, possession of a knife in a public place and possession of an explosive substance with intent to cause serious damage to property.

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

The court heard Murphy had entered a plea saying he was “furious” about HSBC’s “nefarious activities” after watching the documentary and that he had planned to take out his anger by damaging the Blackpool branch or employees’ cars in the car park, but that he did not want to hurt anyone.

He said he wanted his actions “to be widely reported and brought to the attention of the media, to cause widespread fear, to damage HSBC’s reputation and to lead to a change of policy by the bank”.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up to date with the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Click here

But Judge Flewitt said during sentencing that if Murphy’s plan had gone ahead it would have “endangered the lives of everyone who was in or near the car park when it exploded”.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the case was not treated as terrorism because the crimes did not pursue an ideological goal.