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Undercover cop gave B.C. bomb plot suspects chance to abandon alleged plan

John Nuttall and Amanda Korody are shown in a still image taken from RCMP undercover video.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP

VANCOUVER - An undercover officer gave a British Columbia couple a last-minute chance to abandon their alleged plan to detonate pressure-cooker bombs at the provincial legislature on Canada Day, their trial heard Wednesday.

John Nuttall and Amanda Korody's trial heard the officer drove the couple from a Vancouver-area hotel room to a ferry terminal on June 30, 2013, the day before the Crown says their alleged plot was set to unfold.

In covertly-recorded audio played for the jury, the officer, who is posing as an Arab businessman, tells the married couple that instead of driving them to the terminal, he can turn around and drop them off at home.

"Go to the ferry, brother," Nuttall replies firmly.

But Nuttall also gives Korody the chance to leave. Nuttall tells his wife that she could give him some money, he could give her the house key and she could go home.

Korody had expressed second thoughts about the alleged plan earlier that day, but she declines Nuttall's offer in the car and says she wants to go.

"I'm not making you do this, you don't have to," Nuttall says.

"I know," Korody replies.

Nuttall tells Korody she means "more than the whole world and everything in it" to him, and the group turns their attention to the pressure-cooker bombs.

Nuttall and Korody had spent several days shopping for supplies and then putting the bombs together in their motel room. The couple then met another officer who agreed to provide them with C-4 explosives.

In the latest exchange played in court, the officer posing as the Arab businessman promises the couple he has put more than a kilogram of explosives in each bomb. The couple believes the bombs have already been transported to Victoria.

In fact, the officer testified that he took the pressure cookers to an RCMP detachment, where they were handled by an explosives team. The Crown has previously said the bombs were rendered inert and could not explode.

Nuttall and Korody discuss their plans to plant the bombs at around 5 a.m., with detonation expected between 9 and 10 a.m. But the couple still has not decided where to put the explosives, having compiled a list of possible locations around downtown Victoria.

The officer tells them they will stay at a safe house for three days after the explosions.

But Nuttall says he's worried about his cat, Mashalla, who he has left with only enough food for a few days.

"My cat is gonna testify against me to Allah," he says, before telling a story of a woman who went to hell for locking a cat in a cage and not feeding it.

Both Korody and Nuttall have pleaded not guilty to four terrorism-related charges.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015
The Canadian Press

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