Joshua Walker (pictured) denies a charge of possession of a record of terrorist information
A university student told a police officer he forgot to burn a copy of a terrorism manual because he got ‘absolutely plastered’ and ‘smoked a lot’ of cannabis, a court heard.
Joshua Walker, 27, admitted a partial copy of The Anarchist Cookbook he printed off ‘probably should have been burned’ after using it as part of a role-playing game.
Walker told officers that he was a ‘controversial’ character and had previously joked that ‘GCHQ are probably on to me and checking my post’ while a member of the Crisis Games Society at the University of Aberystwyth.
A court heard a few months after the role-playing game, the International Politics and Strategic Studies student had travelled to the Middle East to assist ‘Kurdish fighters fighting Daesh/Islamic State’.
On his return to the UK from Turkey, in December 2016, he was detained by officers at Gatwick airport and questioned.
It was while he was being questioned, that a search of his student bedsit in Dan-y-Coed, Aberystwyth, Wales, turned up the ‘cookbook’ in a pull-out drawer under his bed.
A court heard he told officers: ‘I kind of like being controversial from time to time.’
Speaking about the day of the game in question, Walker then told police: ‘I could have been absolutely plastered throughout most of it.
Joshua Walker (second left) travelled to Syria to fight ISIS in 2016. On his return to the UK police searched his home in Aberystwyth, Wales, and found the terror book, a court heard
‘I smoked a hell of a lot of weed back then so I can’t remember a lot.
‘I can remember someone talking about whether poisonous things can be made easily, but I don’t remember another time.’
Walker, now of Bristol, denies a charge of possession of a record of terrorist information, between May 2015 and June 2016, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing for an act of terror.
The trial at Birmingham Crown Court, due to last a week, continues.
The International Politics and Strategic Studies student (pictured) was detained by officers at Gatwick airport and questioned
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