Express & Star

Jury sworn in for trial of former soldier accused of bomb hoax in Stafford

A jury has been sworn in for the trial of a former soldier accused of a bomb hoax in Stafford.

Published

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565

Daniel Khalife, wearing a blue shirt and navy sleeveless jumper, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court charged with four offences.

He is accused of perpetrating a bomb hoax in Beaconside, Stafford, on or before January 2023, in which he placed "three canisters with wires on a desk in his accommodation" to spark fears it was "likely to explode or ignite and thereby cause personal injury or damage to property".

The 23-year-old is alleged to have escaped from HMP Wandsworth in south London while on remand on terror and espionage charges by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry on September 6 2023. He was arrested on a canal towpath in west London three days later after being pushed off a bike by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer.

He stands accused of passing sensitive information that may be useful to an enemy, and escaping from prison.

Court artist sketch of Daniel Khalife. Photo: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire

He is alleged to have elicited or attempted to elicit personal information about armed forces personnel that was likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism from a Ministry of Defence administration system on August 2 2021.

And Khalife also faces a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy contrary to the Official Secrets Act between May 1 2019 and January 6 2022.

He denies all of the charges.

The trial, before Justice Cheema-Grubb, is expected to last around six weeks.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.