A TEENAGER accused of making a pipe bomb in preparation for a terrorist act told a jury today he did not plan to attack anybody with it.

The 17-year-old from Bradford, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said he posted a picture of the device with a fuse protruding on Snapchat to see what reaction he got.

The jury at Leeds Crown Court has heard the image showed two transparent containers containing black powder above the word Bradford and the message emblazoned across it; “Incendiary explosive and home-made black powder. More to come.”

The teenager told the court he did not intend it to be taken as a genuine threat as he was not intending to do anything with it.

“Did you plan to attack anybody,” asked his counsel Rupert Bowers QC.

“No,” replied the defendant.

“Or do anything with it?” asked Mr Bowers.

“No,” said the teenager. Asked what he had done with it after sending the image he replied: “I put it back in the drawer.”

On July 26 last year, an online message was received by West Yorkshire Police from someone who had seen the image and inquiries led counter-terrorist officers to the teenager’s address.

He denies a charge of preparing a terrorist act and an alternative count of making a pipe bomb.

The prosecution claims the teenager made the pipe bomb as a precursor to his own “race war” and that it was not a bad joke gone wrong as the defence would suggest. Barnaby Jameson, prosecuting, said the teenager had a “political and racial and ideological cause.”

Police found the device in the teenager’s bedroom which was covered in flags including the Swastika and the symbol of the Waffen SS. The defendant told the jury he still believes in National Socialism. He said he had researched a number of religions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism and had read books on them as well as philosophy. “I couldn’t see where I fitted in when it came to religions.”

That had included talking to an Imam at a mosque which he had found interesting. But he told the jury he had started as an atheist, looked at lots of religions and become an atheist again.

At the same time he was researching politics, although initially mainly in America but eventually had veered towards socialism. He had read about Marx and Lenin and the Russian Revolution and had then begun to look into Nazism and Hitler. He told his counsel he began to believe in National Socialist ideology about a year ago. He had bought a helmet and tunic from a re-enactment shop. The trial continues.