Nicky Reilly was arrested at the scene on suspicion of detonating the nail bomb
It is understood Scotland Yard anti-terrorist officers are bemused by Devon and Cornwall Police’s rapid decision to reveal the claims that Reilly ‘was preyed upon, radicalised and taken advantage of’.
In normal circumstances, officers would take days – if not weeks – before coming to any conclusion about motives.
By Michael Seamark and Colin Fernandez
The Muslim convert held after a nailbomb restaurant attack had been under surveillance by the security services, it was claimed last night.
Counter-terrorist officers suspected mentally-ill Nicky Reilly had forged links with known Islamic extremists at an internet cafe near his home.
The revelation raised serious questions about how he was able to travel on a bus with 54 passengers for the 44-mile journey from his home in Plymouth to Exeter, where the home-made bomb exploded.
The 22-year old – who detectives believe was exploited by militants – even received a text message of encouragement before setting off on his failed suicide mission on Thursday, say police sources.
Reilly (circled) was tracked on CCTV in Exeter city centre with the faulty nail bombs
The bomb was a ‘viable’ fireball-type device constructed of drain cleaner, kerosene, strips of aluminium foil and nails.
It was extremely volatile and may have been detonated by shaking. Reilly suffered severe cuts and facial burns when it went off in the lavatory of the Giraffe restaurant in a Plymouth shopping centre.
Police suspect the terrorists who built the bomb, and two similar devices found at the scene, thought they would have been powerful enough to blow out the front of the restaurant – causing untold death and injury.
The fact that Reilly, who had changed his name to Mohammed Rasheed, was ‘known’ to security services has echoes of July 7 bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan.
The leader of the suicide cell, which killed 52 people in London, was monitored by MI5. But he was not considered a priority and slipped through the net with disastrous consequences.
Armed guards stood at Reilly’s hospital bedside yesterday as the hunt began for those who turned the ‘gentle giant’ with a mental age of ten into a bomber.
Police with machine-guns and Taser stunguns swooped on two men as they sat drinking coffee yesterday outside a Plymouth cafe.
Witnesses said the men, who were of Middle Eastern appearance and had a child in a pushchair at their side, were searched and put into white paper suits before being driven away.
Reilly, a recent convert to Islam, had a diagnosed mental illness and had been in residential treatment, according to police sources.
The botched Exeter operation mirrors tactics used in Iraq of extremists taking advantage of the mentally or physically disabled to carry out suicide attacks.
Neighbours claimed Reilly, who is 6ft 1in and weighs 18st, repeatedly watched videos of the September 11 atrocity and used the burning Twin Towers as his computer screen saver. It is thought he may have been ‘brainwashed’ at a fish and chip shop near his home, a first-floor flat in a rundown area.
Police, who said Reilly had been ‘preyed upon and radicalised’, are searching the flat where he lives with his mother Kim, step-father and younger brother.
Neighbours painted a picture of a friendless, reclusive, vulnerable young man who used to collect James Bond model cars but in recent years came into contact with local Muslims.
One friend, 17-year- old Alli Turner, said: ‘When the Twin Towers happened he would constantly watch it on repeat. He also had a huge 9/11 poster on his wall.
‘He always used to say that he had been told you will get a better life when you die if you are a Muslim.
‘He once said he goes to “secret meetings” where no one is allowed if they are not a Muslim.
‘Nicky was never into drugs but he was on heavy medication. He tried to commit suicide several times.’
Aftermath News 
Pingback: Police were tracking movements of mentally ill Muslim convert patsie before restaurant attack