Ex-GCHQ worker tried to murder US spy with two knives at a leisure centre
A former intelligence employee has pleaded guilty to trying to murder a woman because she worked for GCHQ.
Joshua Bowles punched and stabbed the victim multiple times outside a leisure centre some three miles from the agency’s Cheltenham base after carrying out a ‘dummy run’.
The 29-year-old targeted the US national, who is referred to only by the number 99230, because she worked at the agency, representing her government.
The Old Bailey heard Bowles had left GCHQ by the time of the incident on March 9.
The court was told he had gathered information on her personal life and had carried out a test a month earlier.
Armed with two knives, Bowles launched the attack as the woman was getting out of the centre after playing netball with a friend.
He then punched a man named Alex Fuentes, who tried to intervene in the nearby car park.
Following today’s hearing, Nick Price, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: ‘This extremely violent attack against two innocent people was completely unprovoked.
‘It is right that those who commit violent crimes like this should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law to protect the public, and our thoughts continue to be with the victims and their families.’
Bowles, who has no previous convictions, was charged with attempted murder, as well as assaulting a man, causing him actual bodily harm, after an investigation by counter-terror police.
He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and will be sentenced in October.
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