John Nuttall and Amanda Korody are shown in a still image taken from an RCMP undercover video. A B.C. couple accused of conspiring to kill a crowd of people celebrating Canada Day at the provincial legislature believed no one would finger them in the plot because they are white.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP
March 04, 2015 - 5:00 AM
VANCOUVER - As time ticked toward a crucial deadline, a British Columbia man accused of plotting to bomb the provincial legislature on Canada Day warned his wife that an Arab businessman who was helping them with their plan would turn into a monster if they fell short, their trial has heard.
John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were captured on video in a hotel room working late into the night on June 28, 2013, to build bombs out of pressure cookers, which their associate told them must be ready by morning. The businessman was actually an undercover Mountie.
In the video, Nuttall tells Korody what to expect if they can't deliver their end of the bargain.
"You know what's going to happen to us? He's going to turn from a real nice guy into a ... monster," Nuttall says in one of several expletive-laced diatribes featured in the video, which was played for a jury on Tuesday.
"Has it occurred to you that he has a fourth contingency plan? It involves us wearing cement galoshes at the bottom of the ocean."
Jurors in B.C. Supreme Court have watched reams of video, all recorded surreptitiously by police, showing the pair either driving around with the undercover officer or inside a room at a motel located south of Vancouver.
Nuttall and Korody, who the Crown says had recently embraced a radicalized form of Islam, were charged in July 2013 after the alleged plot was foiled.
In the video, Nuttall orders his wife not to sleep. They wear white gloves as they work together with a soldering iron to put together parts of a large round clock and a jumble of wires. Tassels from headscarves they are both wearing dangle over their project while Arabic music plays in the background.
Nuttall repeatedly directs Korody to identify three targets for their explosives, while musing out loud about the different ways they can inflict harm.
At one point, he imagines parking a truck packed with explosives in downtown Victoria and blowing it up. He then switches to another idea, driving the truck into a parking garage below an apartment.
He later says his dream is to sink a passenger ferry.
"If we went boom, there'd be nothing of it left. Everyone would be ... dead," he tells his wife, who asks him if that's his new plan.
"They would shut down the ferries completely, forever. It would cost billions in damages."
His excitement grows as he tells Korody about the entire scheme.
"They'll never know that it was really two white people that did it."
Korody often lies down on a bed or is heard washing various tools in the bathroom. Her husband frequently implores her to "pull yourself together," saying the couple will sacrifice themselves and reap great rewards.
Nuttall, who has said he believes they are fighting for al-Qaida, tells her they will never brag after they pull off the bombing.
"Let them (al-Qaida) have the credit, OK?" he says. "Even if we're sitting alone in a camp, in the middle of Bosnia surrounded by Mujahedeen. You say nothing except, 'That operation in Canada that al-Qaida did was wonderful.'"
The Crown contends the couple was seeking to avenge their perceived mistreatment of Muslims overseas, especially by the Canadian military. Their defence lawyers say they will highlight the RCMP's role in the sting.
The police ensured the bombs that were planted were inert.
Both Nuttall and Korody have pleaded not guilty.
ACCUSED B.C. COUPLE BELIEVED BEING WHITE WOULD MASK ROLE IN TERROR PLOT: TRIAL
VANCOUVER - A B.C. couple accused of conspiring to kill a crowd of people celebrating Canada Day at the provincial legislature believed no one would finger them in the plot because they are white.
A jury is watching a secretly videotaped exchange between John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, in which they agree that sacrificing their lives for Islam without seeking credit would reap great rewards.
The video was recorded by undercover police just days before the duo allegedly planned to plant bombs around the legislature to avenge the perceived mistreatment of Muslims overseas, especially by the Canadian military.
The couple, who the Crown says embraced radical views about Islam, are seen holed up in a motel room south of Vancouver as they brainstorm what kind of attack will best send their message.
Jurors have already seen video of Nuttall singling out the issue of Palestinian independence as a particular grievance.
The pair was arrested in July 2013 after they allegedly planted three pressure-cookers bombs around the legislature, but the RCMP had ensured they were inert.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015