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  • 5 hours ago
A hero hospital patient who talked a "lone-wolf terrorist" out of detonating a bomb in a Leeds maternity wing said the would-be attacker "asked for a cuddle" before telling him to "phone the police before I change my mind". Nathan Newby, who stopped an atrocity through an act of kindness, has been speaking about his encounter with Mohammad Farooq at St James's Hospital in 2023. Nathan has become the recipient of The George Medal for Bravery.
Transcript
00:00When did he first mention the bomb?
00:03Probably about an hour into the conversation.
00:08He was constantly watching it. We were about seven foot away from us.
00:13And every nurse walked past it, he was like,
00:15looking at them, looking at the bomb.
00:18Well, looking at the bag, sorry.
00:20And then he asked him what was in it.
00:22He said, oh, if it's your bag, why haven't you got it near you?
00:26Do you know what I mean? It's...
00:30And then he just come out with it. I said, what's in it?
00:32And he hummed it hard. They were like, didn't want to, but then I got out of him.
00:37He just said, it's just a bomb. And I'm like, OK.
00:42Mohamed Farouk was jailed for life with a minimum term of 37 years
00:46after taking a homemade pressure cooker bomb into St. James's Hospital in Leeds in 2023.
00:53Nathan Newby, who was a patient at the hospital on the night Farouk planned to carry out the bombing,
00:59has received the George Medal for bravery.
01:01He talked the lone wolf terrorist out of detonating his device,
01:05with the would-be attacker asking for a cuddle before telling him to phone the police
01:10before he changed his mind.
01:12Nathan has been reflecting on the encounter.
01:16I could hear it in his voice that...
01:20It was...
01:21Not like a joke or all that, but...
01:24So I asked him to have a look at it, just to confirm it,
01:26and then...
01:27He just...
01:27I probably opened it up and showed me it.
01:30I thought I was scared, yeah, but...
01:33It concerns him more to just try and get him away or...
01:36I wasn't going to, like, shout and...
01:39Things like that, say there was a bomb here,
01:40because they were being, like, nervous for all of us,
01:42and...
01:43It just caused havoc,
01:44so I just thought,
01:45is it the best way to keep it quiet and just get him out of the way?
01:48And I got my phone out, and it didn't mean he was dead.
01:50So I put him on the bench, and I'm like,
01:52can I be cheeky and bother your phone?
01:54And then, yeah, I went front of the police,
01:56which...
01:57I was sort of a bit relieved,
01:58but at the end of the day,
02:00he could have still...
02:00He could have still changed his mind at any time,
02:02even if I went front of the police or not.
02:04The woman on the phone asked me if...
02:06If he's got anything on him that'll harm myself,
02:10him and, you know, officers when they get there.
02:13So I asked him and just opened his coat
02:15and just pointed a gun to me for about 34 seconds.
02:21Then realised what he'd done,
02:22and then sort of grabbed it and turned it round
02:25and went to give me it,
02:26and I was like,
02:27I don't want to touch that mate,
02:28put it on the bench.
02:30It was just going through bad things at the time,
02:34and when you're in that situation,
02:37it's, you know,
02:39your mind's capable of doing all sorts of things
02:41that you don't expect.
02:42There were a lot of things going on,
02:44so it was like...
02:46It didn't really all got to sink in till afterwards,
02:49when I was like,
02:50I got pleased for it.
02:52It was like...
02:53Then it started sinking in,
02:54then it could have been...
02:56Well, yeah, it could have been different.
02:57I'm going for you.
02:58I'm going for you,
02:59Then just...
02:59You're going for you.
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