Failed asylum seeker left faux dynamite stick close to MI5 HQ | UK | News | EUROtoday

A failed asylum seeker has been discovered responsible of leaving a faux stick of dynamite outdoors MI5 headquarters a day after being advised he can be kicked out of the UK. Brazilian nationwide Julian Valente Pereira, 32, mocked up an explosive gadget with rolled-up A4 paper, brown masking tape, and string to imitate a fuse, and left it outdoors Thames House in central London. The incident occurred on January 1, the day after Pereira’s last enchantment for asylum had been dismissed by a decide.

An explosives knowledgeable from counter-terrorism policing needed to be drafted in after MI5 CCTV operators noticed Pereira dropping the gadget close to the entrance doorways of the constructing together with a inexperienced cigarette lighter, City of London Magistrates’ Court heard. Pereira, who admits he “hates the Home Office”, denied finishing up a bomb hoax – insisting he by no means supposed for anybody to imagine the gadget was actual. But Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring discovered him responsible, concluding Pereira knew he was being watched – blowing a kiss to the CCTV operator – and supposed to trigger worry of an explosion.

Branding Pereira “manipulative” throughout his proof, the decide stated: “You had without doubt foresaw that someone would believe it was a genuine device until closer inspection, capable of being ignited by a lighter, and if it was they would believe it would explode.”

Pereira has been remanded in custody until sentencing on April 1.

Prosecutor Shannon Revel told the court Perreira has admitted he wanted “maximum attention” on his complaints towards the Home Office.

“No-one was going to pay attention to this act if they thought it was masking tape and paper,” she said. “The attention he desperately wanted on January 1 is only achieved by the fact that someone believed that object could explode.”

The court heard that Pereira, wearing a hoodie adorned with a St George’s Cross, which the judge branded “inappropriate”, came to the UK with permission to work in July 2018 and has remained in the country illegally since February 2019.

“The defendant attended Thames House in Millbank, knowing it to be the headquarters of the security services MI5,” said Ms Revel.

“He tried to open the doors of the building without success. He started to push pieces of paper between the closed doors that were locked. He took an item fashioned from paper, string and masking tape out of his jacket pocket. The object was designed to look like a stick of dynamite.”

The court was played CCTV of Pereira throwing the object to the ground, then placing it up against the doors of the MI5 headquarters with the lighter.

“At the time, it wasn’t possible to tell whether the dynamite stick with a fuse was real or not,” said Ms Revel.

She said the counter-terrorism explosives expert later declared the incident as a hoax.

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Giving evidence, Pereira said he left the object at the front of MI5 because he wanted to “catch the attention” of the security services.

“I swear it wasn’t my intention to cause any disruption on Vauxhall Bridge,” he said.

He told the court he had also visited Buckingham Palace to throw a bag containing a copy of the immigration ruling and a knife stabbed through his ID inside the perimeter gates.

In messages read out during the trial, Pereira had told a friend of his plan.

“I’m going to Buckingham Palace with a knife and one pen drive,” he wrote, adding: “All the information is inside the pen drive.”

When he was told to “stop being an idiot”, Pereira wrote: “I’m going to try and get attention. I’m going to throw the bag into Buckingham Palace.”

He also said he planned to “give information” to the Archbishop of Canterbury as a precaution.

When giving evidence, Pereira insisted the device he left outside MI5 would not have been mistaken for an explosive, but added: “The news inside was dynamite.”

Pereira was arrested in his room at an asylum hotel in Uxbridge, west London, and told officers about his “long and tireless battle with the Home Office to try to attain asylum”, said the prosecutor.

Judge Goldspring was told that Pereira handed himself in to police as an overstayer in October 2020, but later sought asylum after being told to leave the UK.

He was placed in asylum-seeker accommodation in June 2021, asylum was refused in 2023, and his appeal against that decision was rejected by a judge on December 31, 2025.

The court heard that Pereira’s paid-for accommodation was withdrawn on January 9.

In his police interview, he told officers he has schizophrenia and had been hearing voices in his head.

He denied carrying out a bomb hoax by placing an article with intent.

The decide requested for studies on Pereira’s psychological well being and danger of reoffending, and warned that he could also be jailed or despatched to the Crown Court for sentencing.