Muslim convert ‘felt justified’ in assaulting Broadmoor hospital staff, inquest told

A Muslim convert terrorist felt “justified” in assaulting hospital staff over a ban on communal prayers, an inquest jury has heard.

Nicky Reilly, 30, was said to be furious after bosses at high-security Broadmoor brought in the policy following fears that Muslim patients were intimidating others by the way they were praying on the wards.

His attack, committed with another patient, led to clinicians concluding he was no longer willing to engage in treatment at the psychiatric hospital and he was transferred back to the prison system.

Reilly – who had changed his name to Mohammed Saeed Alim – was moved to Broadmoor a few months after he was jailed for life in January 2009. He was sentenced after he injured himself in a bungled attempt to set off a home-made bomb in an Exeter cafe.

Following the Broadmoor attack in July 2015, he was moved to HMP Manchester later that year to continue his minimum 18-year term.

On October 19 2016, Reilly, from Plymouth, was found hanging in his cell by a ligature suspended from a light fitting.

Jurors in Heywood, Greater Manchester, are considering the circumstances surrounding his death.

Dr Kevin Murray, consultant forensic psychiatrist at Broadmoor, told the court he did not consider mental disorder played any role in the attack there and decided there was no prospect of Reilly’s treatment going forward at Broadmoor.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, he said: “The assault had nothing to with mental disorder and everything to do with his anger at the policy change earlier that week and his frustration and his sense of being victimised.”

Dr Murray told jurors he believed the sense of victimisation was “misplaced”.

He said: “He asserted to staff that he was justified in what he did and he had done nothing wrong.”

Reilly had been moved to Broadmoor to help him gain a better understanding of his condition of Asperger’s in relation to his radicalisation and the risks posed in future, the court had heard.

In late June 2015 Reilly had agreed to attend a meeting to discuss taking part in an extremism risk assessment but rejected any further treatment after the assault a month later, according to Dr Murray.

Taking part in the Government’s Prevent counter-terrorism strategy was also discussed the previous year when he made comments around the anniversary of the May 22 2008 cafe attack about “being brainwashed by two guys on the internet from Pakistan”.

But he ultimately did not engage with Prevent which he later labelled as a “toxic brand”.

On Monday, Reilly’s mother Kim told the court she thought Broadmoor was “washing their hands of him” and she had been led to believe he would stay there for a “very, very long time”.

Dr Murray maintained it was the right decision to move him back to the prison estate.

The hearing continues. It is scheduled to finish next week.

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