Ex-GCHQ software dev jailed for stabbing NSA staffer
- Reference: 1699038171
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/11/03/gchq_software_dev_stabbing/
- Source link:
Joshua Bowles, a former Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) programmer, attacked the individual in March following at least a month of planning, police said.
Bowles waited for the NSA staffer, a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, in his car outside a leisure center in Cheltenham. He then attacked her as she emerged with a colleague after a netball game.
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Cheltenham, a town in the county of Gloucestershire, is the location of GCHQ's headquarters and where the NSA is known to station some of its employees, including the victim.
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He will serve a minimum sentence of 13 years after pleading guilty to one count of attempted murder and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Bowles visited the leisure center four weeks prior to the attack after researching the victim extensively to plan out the attack.
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After leaving the sports complex, Bowles [5]reportedly caught the woman's attention by saying "excuse me" from behind and when she turned around, he punched her repeatedly.
The victim's colleague tried to stop the attack but was unsuccessful, as was bystander Alex Fuentes who attempted an intervention on his way to play football but was also punched by Bowles.
Fuentes' efforts afforded the two women time to run back to the gym entrance, but Bowles, 29, followed them inside and began the knife attack, inflicting multiple wounds to the victim in the abdomen, chest, and thigh.
Joshua Bowles mugshot ... Source: Counter Terrorism Policing South East
In the immediate aftermath of the March 9 attack, which occurred after Bowles left his position at [6]GCHQ , he was said to have dropped the knife and calmly waited for the police to arrive.
Justice Cheema-Grubb DBE ruled at an Old Bailey sentencing hearing that Bowles was motivated by a terrorist ideology.
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According to another bystander, Steve Bunn, who helped stop the attack while inside the leisure center, Bowles said to him that it was a good thing he didn't have a gun, before likening himself to a terrorist.
Bowles also reportedly told Bunn that he would understand the motivations behind his attack if he knew about the work being carried out by GCHQ and the [8]NSA .
Justice Cheema-Grubb DBE said the attack was "politically motivated" and also fueled by Bowles' "anger and resentment towards women."
The court heard Bowles' search history included research into white supremacy, attacks on women, and Theodore Kaczynski – otherwise known as the Unabomber.
[9]Florida man jailed after draining $1M from victims in crypto SIM swap attacks
[10]FTX crypto-villain Sam Bankman-Fried convicted on all charges
[11]'Influencer' gets 7 months in prison for plot to interfere with 2016 US election
[12]Ex-NSA techie pleads guilty to selling state secrets to Russia
"By the time you launched your attack, your feelings of anger and resentment against GCHQ and women had evolved sufficiently to lead you to mount a lethal assault through which you wanted, however unrealistically, to disrupt the work of the UK intelligence community with an important ally, the United States of America, and you hoped to achieve this by killing one of the American citizens you knew was engaged in that work," Cheema-Grubb said.
After recovering from the attack in hospital, the victim said the incident "completely changed my life."
"I now know he used to work where I work and I'm devastated by this," she said. "Following the attack, I went from being in the best shape I had ever been to being the weakest I have ever been."
Detective chief superintendent Olly Wright, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said that in police interviews Bowles admitted to specifically selecting his target based on her employer and that this was the core motive behind the attack.
"Despite the valiant efforts of a member of the public, who intervened to help during the first part of the attack, Bowles was undeterred," he said. "He went on to stab the victim a number of times, which must have been a terrifying ordeal.
"I do not underestimate the potential long-lasting effects this incident will have on the victim and her family and friends. I hope now that the court proceedings have concluded, she can begin to rebuild her life after this horrendous ordeal."
A spokesperson at GCHQ told The Register :
"This was a shocking, unprovoked attack and its isolated nature does not make it any less upsetting. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. GCHQ has been working closely with police during their investigation and we welcome justice being done."
The NSA also sent us a statement:
"The NSA remains committed to the safety and wellbeing of its employees. We will continue to work closely with the victim and their family to provide necessary support." ®
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[5] https://apnews.com/article/british-cyberespionage-intelligence-american-stabbing-d7de7a68523db9d91f6511597cd7cccf
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/15/gchq_warns_against_sensitive_corporate/
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[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/02/nsa_ai_security_center/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/30/sim_swapping_crypto_crook_jailed/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/03/sam_bankman_fried_ftx_convicted/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/20/influencer_prison_2016_election/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/nsa_techie_russia_espionage/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Stabby stab
Given that the whack-job was apparently obsessed with the one woman, I seriously doubt he'd have managed half a dozen.
It's further proof that paying attention to that side of anti-social media rots the brain. When are we going to do something about this serious threat to society?
Re: Stabby stab
The health effects of multiple gunshots is typically larger than of multiple stab wounds, though, so even if he didn't attempt to kill anyone else, the results could have been much worse if he had a firearm.
Re: Stabby stab
Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
There are many, many ways that an obsessed whack-job can commit multiple murders. Are you wringing your hands over all of those other possibilities, too? If not, why the double standard?
Re: Stabby stab
I'm responding to the what if scenario that was presented: what would be different if this man had had a firearm instead of a knife. I stated my opinion: there's a possibility that nobody else would have gotten injured, but I think the intended victim would likely have suffered more serious injuries. If you want to see opinions on a different scenario, you are welcome to posit one. What you do as a result of this prediction, or whether you even agree with that prediction, are not part of my statement.
Re: Stabby stab
Being obsessed with only one woman hasn't stopped previous nutters from killing multiple people. Some incels are mad at society as a whole for their inability to get laid so they won't limit their attacks to just women who have rejected them.
Fortunately if a knife is all you have it is difficult to go on much of a rampage since it requires close up contact and people can defend themselves from a knife attack with items that are handy like a chair, trash can, handbag, etc. Also possible for someone experienced (or able to sneak up behind) to disarm him. Nothing you can do about someone with a gun but run, hide, and hope he goes in a different direction.
Some would suggest that's why you want "good guys with a gun" but getting in a shootout in a public place with other people around may make things worse, and when cops arrive they won't know you weren't part of the attack so you might end up dead.
Re: Stabby stab
"Nothing you can do about someone with a gun but run, hide, and hope he goes in a different direction."
One could say the same about a motorcycle or car. Or a truck full of improvised explosives.
Let's ban motorcycles, cars and trucks! Won't all y'all think of the children?
Re: Stabby stab
[1]The Onion - ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
In the days following a violent rampage in southern California in which a lone attacker killed seven individuals, including himself, and seriously injured over a dozen others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.
“This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said North Carolina resident Samuel Wipper, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations.
“It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this guy from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what he really wanted.”
[1] https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1819576527
Re: Stabby stab
threats to society, are you talking about the NSA or GCHQ?
Stabby stab
Horrific, but I couldn’t help but think of this were the US there would be at least half a dozen dead, especially given he’s a whackjob incel.