CCTV Footage of Poker Player Damon Smith Tube Bomb Plot Released

CCTV footage of the moment poker-playing and gun-obsessed loner Damon Smith left a backpack filled with explosives on a London Underground train has been shown to the jury in his trial at the Old Bailey.

The jury also heard that 20-year old Smith ‘had previously printed off Al Qaida guidelines titled ‘Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom’ and made notes before shredding the paper’, according to Unilad.com.

As reported here on PokerTube last October, Smith was tasered and arrested by police outside London Metropolitan University, close to Arsenal's football ground and yesterday the jury were shown the moment Smith exited the train, leaving the rucksack filled with explosives and ball-bearing shrapnel, with a detonator clock timed to go off 13 minutes later.

The bomb failed to detonate at 11:02 as planned – the prosecution claiming that had it done so it would have co-incided with the moment passengers were being told to leave the station, the tube driver having mistaken the bag for lost property – carrying it with him to North Greenwich.

After Smith’s arrest, one neighbour described the then 19-year old as:

“Really smart, really smart. I know he played poker and stuff, he's really good at it. From meeting him I would he really surprised. He is the gentlest-natured person. He was lovely, you just knew he was smart."

Another neighbour Ray Wilkinson, claimed that:

”He used to play poker… he was a real poker fan and he used to join clubs and things like that. He didn't speak too much."

Smith had previously posted photos of himself on Twitter posing with wads of £50 notes won at poker, and also in a winning pose at a Grosvenor casino. One Hendon Mob listing shows a Damon Smith having come 2nd in a £20 re-buy event at the Plymouth Genting Casino, as well as further cashes in £25 buy-in events at Nottingham’s well-known ‘Dusk ‘Til Dawn ‘ Casino.

Smith has already admitted the lesser offence of perpetrating a bomb hoax but denies the main charge of ‘possession of an explosive substance with intent’, claiming that although he made the device found on the train, he ‘only meant to spew harmless smoke as a prank’.

The jury have also heard that he ‘had a keen interest in Islam, guns, explosives, gambling, and collected photos of extremists’. The trial at the Old Bailey continues.