Leigh Boobyer, BristolWednesday August 12, 2026
Mohamed Mohamoud was living in Bristol when he was arrested
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A 22-year-old accused of preparing terrorist acts told a court he was drawn towards the Islamic State group after viewing what he called “extreme” religious content on YouTube and TikTok.
Mohamed Mohamoud is standing trial at Winchester Crown Court over allegations that he prepared acts of terrorism between 1 October 2024 and 5 March 2025.
On Tuesday, Mohamoud, who was born in Somalia and moved to Bristol in 2020, accepted before the jury that he had tried to join IS in Somalia in 2025. However, he denied intending to carry out a terrorist act or help anyone else do so.
Mohamoud said he had not been religious before he began watching “extreme” videos on YouTube. He later encountered a TikTok video that he said promoted IS.
While giving evidence, his barrister, Dominic Thomas, asked: “Do you accept that you attempted to join Isis?”
“Yes I do,” Mohamoud replied.
Thomas followed up by asking: “If you were charged with that offence what would you do?”
“Plead guilty,” he said.
Naomi Parsons, prosecuting, had earlier told the court that Mohamoud travelled to Somalia in January 2025 in an attempt to become a “martyr” for IS. He returned to the UK in early March after he was unable to reach the group because of continuing counter-terrorism operations in the country.
Parsons also said Mohamoud had used an AI chatbot to help establish contact with the group in Somalia. Following his return, she said, he remained in contact with recruiters and told them: “Any time, you say the word, I will return.”
TikTok video ‘promoted IS’
Mohamoud told the court that he moved to Bristol as a teenager to live with his mother and attended college, where he studied English, maths and cooking.
Before that, he had lived in the United Arab Emirates with his stepmother. He said he had a difficult relationship with his mother, whom he had seen only once since his parents separated when he was three.
He told jurors that he found a YouTube channel and began watching “a lot” of religious videos.
“It was extreme videos, not violence, just people sitting there talking,” he said.
“They were discussing some law about infidel people who follow democracy, socialism, that are saying these things are disbeliever [sic], they are saying the leaders and their soldiers and whole institutions are disbelief [sic].”
Mohamoud added: “I was watching these videos against democracy and whatnot on TikTok and there was a video promoting IS.
“What happened was I was watching these videos, these people who do not belong to any group, so I was like ‘yes, these groups who were fighting democracy or whatnot, they are doing something right’.”
He said he commented on the video to say that he wanted to emigrate and join “in this process”.
The trial continues.
