VANCOUVER — A woman found guilty of helping to mastermind a terrorist bomb plot wanted to infiltrate a synagogue and kill "small Jews" to save the children from going to hell, a court has heard.
Police notes presented in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday recounted Amanda Korody's husband John Nuttall telling an undercover officer that his wife believed she would be doing Jewish children a favour by sending them to paradise, since she believed "grown-up Jews" go to "eternal hell" when they die.
"I asked Nuttall how he thinks he will have access to Jewish kids and he said they were both white and could pass for Jewish," Crown lawyer Sharon Steele read from the undercover RCMP officer's notes, dated from March 2013.
"They will be regulars in the synagogue. They will gain the trust of everybody. And once they have everything they will get enough guns and ammo to go ahead with their mission."
Nuttall acknowledged that Jewish children were non-combatants but explained that they would be raised to hate Arabs and Muslims, wrote the undercover officer. However, Nuttall eventually conceded that "you never know, they may convert (to Islam) in their adulthood."
Nuttall and Korody were found guilty of plotting to detonate homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the B.C. legislature during Canada Day celebrations two years ago.
Lawyers for the self-described Muslim converts are in court arguing that the RCMP entrapped the pair through an elaborate, months-long undercover sting operation.
The court heard that Canada's spy agency sent a brief disclosure letter to the RCMP in late 2012, identifying Nuttall as a possible threat.
Police had already confronted Nuttall on a number of occasions by then, including after his friend reported that the suspect claimed to have shot a Jewish woman.
RCMP Cpl. Stephen Matheson told the court an officer interviewed John Nuttall, but he denied killing anyone.
The officer was concerned about the radical, jihadi-style views Nuttall was expressing and asked for a mental health assessment on the man, said Matheson.
A mental health nurse concluded Nuttall did not have a mental illness but that he may be developmentally delayed, said the officer.
On Jan. 31, 2013, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service sent a follow-up advisory letter alerting the RCMP that Nuttall had attempted to buy potassium nitrate — an ingredient in homemade explosives — from pharmacies in the Lower Mainland.
Matheson told the court about Nuttall's criminal history, listing offences ranging from kidnapping and robbery to aggravated assault. Nuttall had also been kicked out of various mosques, he added.
The court has previously heard that Nuttall and Korody both saw themselves as jihadist warriors behind enemy lines, waging holy war against the Western World for its treatment of Muslims.
This is the final week before the trial adjourns until its scheduled return in October.
