Former GCHQ worker jailed for life after trying to kill US spy

A former GCHQ worker has been handed a life sentence after attempting to kill an American spy in a ‘premeditated, targeted and vicious’ knife attack.

Joshua Bowles repeatedly punched and stabbed the woman with two knives at a leisure centre only three miles from the UK intelligence agency’s base in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on March 9.

Afterwards, the ex-computer software coding developer said he had targeted her because he could not handle the ‘murky waters of ethics’ and ‘the power that the American National Security Agency have and the things they do’.

Bowles added: ‘I make a pretty s*** terrorist, don’t I?’

The court heard that the 29-year-old defendant had planned the attack and searched the internet for topics including American Unabomber terrorist Theodore Kaczynski, attacks on women, and white supremacy.

Bowles, of Welwyn Mews, Cheltenham, pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of the spy and for assaulting a man who attempted to intervene.

Today at the Old Bailey, Justice Cheema-Grubb found it was a ‘politically motivated attack’ driven by ‘anger and resentment’ towards GCHQ and women, an sentenced him to a minimum term of 13 years.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny KC said it was a ‘pre-meditated, targeted and vicious attack on an unarmed woman’.

He told the court: ‘That woman was a United States government employee working in the United Kingdom.

‘She was attacked by a man who was carrying two knives and she was stabbed three times outside, and in the reception area of, a leisure centre in Cheltenham.

‘Her selection as the target for this attack was entirely and solely associated with her role as a US government employee in the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States.’

The woman had been playing netball on the evening of March 9 before being followed as she left with a fellow American.

When she heard someone say ‘Excuse me’, she turned around and was immediately punched repeatedly in the face.

She fought back, kicking and screaming, as her friend hit him with her bag and told him to leave her alone.

Alex Fuentes, who was on his way to play football, was punched in the face when he asked Bowles what was happening.

His intervention allowed the two women to run back into the centre’s reception area, pursued by the defendant seconds later.

Steve Bunn, another visitor to the leisure centre, said he saw blood flowing from the woman’s mouth and down her chin and throat.

Describing the resumed attack, he said: ‘He was on her, immediately, grabbed her and was moving around in such a way it was obvious he was trying to hit her or hurt her, he was striking at her.

‘It looked like he was throwing punches or attacking her with punches.’

He grabbed the defendant, enabling the two women to escape again before Bowles dropped a knife on the floor.

Bunn said the defendant’s ‘frenzied aggression just dissipated’ once the two women had left.

Asked if he was alright, Bowles said: ‘No, I’ve just tried to kill her.’

While waiting for police, the defendant told Bunn he would understand if he knew what they did at GCHQ.

He said Bowles was ‘making out that he was disgusted by the manner in which they gather information and use things against people’.

The court was told the victim’s injuries included cuts to her abdomen, chest and thigh.

In a victim impact statement, she said that using the defendant’s name made her ‘feel sick’.

She said: ‘I now know he used to work where I work and I’m devastated by this.

‘This attack has had a profound effect on me and it’s utterly and completely changed my life.

‘Following the attack, I went from being in the best shape I had ever been to being the weakest I have ever been.’

In a statement, Bowles told police he had targeted her because she was employed by the National Security Agency.

Tim Forte, defending, expressed Bowles’ “profound regret, remorse and shame at what he has done”.

Forte rejected any terrorist connection, saying the depressed defendant’s twin motivations were being ‘ghosted’ by another former American co-worker.

Detective Chief Superintendent Olly Wright, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), said: ‘Now that the court proceedings have concluded, I really do hope that the victim can begin to rebuild.’

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