Man who talked down hospital bomber says would-be attacker asked for a cuddle

Nathan Newby set to receive George Medal for stopping a potential atrocity with an act of kindness

A hospital patient who managed to talk a man out of detonating a bomb in a maternity wing said the would-be attacker “asked for a cuddle” before standing down.

Nathan Newby, who stopped an atrocity through an act of kindness, spoke publicly for the first time about his encounter with Mohammad Farooq before receiving the George Medal for bravery.

Farooq, a clinical support worker who took a viable pressure cooker bomb into St James’s hospital in Leeds intending to “kill as many nurses as possible” was jailed for at least 37 years last year. After asking for a cuddle, Farooq told Newby to “phone the police before I change my mind”.

The judge who sentenced Farooq, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said Newby’s “decency and kindness on 20 January 2023 prevented an atrocity in a maternity wing of a major British hospital”.