A man who said he left a bag of wires and an iPad outside the American embassy in London as an “art installation” has been cleared of making a hoax bomb threat.
Bomb disposal officers carried out a controlled explosion and the embassy in Nine Elms, southwest London, went into lockdown after a civilian guard raised the alarm about the suspicious items on the morning of 22 November last year.
Daniel Parmenter, 44, denied intending to cause alarm. He maintained that the package was “graffiti art” and claimed that staff at the embassy would recognise it was not an explosive device.
Following a trial at the Old Bailey, the defendant, from Bayswater, west London, was found not guilty of placing an article with intent.
Mr Parmenter wasn’t there to hear the not guilty verdict though, as he had gone home earlier in the day after the jury retired
His barrister told the court that his client, who had been on bail, had completely misunderstood that he was meant to stay and was cycling back to court.
He said: “He is riding back as quickly as he can. I can hear the wind in his earphones. He did sound genuinely shocked on the phone.”
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Suspicious package provoked panic
The prosecutor had previously set out how Mr Parmenter had left a suspicious item in an alleyway by the embassy at around 6am.
This was then spotted at 8.30am by the guard who was on a routine patrol who “panicked” when she noticed what she thought looked like a bomb.
She took a photograph of the suspected bomb before going to the embassy to raise the alarm.
A police officer on duty at the embassy who went to the alleyway described seeing a drum, some photo frames, and a large metal tray with writing and a skull and crossbones on it.
The prosecutor said: “Next to all of this on the floor next to the wall was what appeared to be an IED [improvised explosive device], it was an old-style iPad with a keypad and firework wires all taped.”
Three bomb disposal officers attended the scene and carried out a controlled explosion.
CCTV from the area led to the identification and arrest of Parmenter at the home he shares with his mother two days later.
When he answered the door, he was wearing the same hat and jumper seen in the CCTV footage.
Parmenter, who has autism spectrum disorder, denied meaning any harm, saying: “It is basically a form of slightly sophisticated graffiti art of the non-vandal type.”
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In a formal police interview, Mr Parmenter said he placed items outside the US embassy as an “art installation”.
He conceded that the items may, to the untrained eye, look like a suspicious device, but said it was never intended that way.
He told police he had left other gifts at places on Halloween, saying on that occasion he gave the US embassy a framed print relating to 9/11.
