Scouse gangster wanted to carry out deadly terror attack - but one thing stopped him
An ex-gang boss who was jailed for his role in setting up an illegal gun factory has claimed he wanted to carry out a terrorist attack upon his release. Sicarius McGrath, once described as a "monumental risk to the public" before turning his life around, was involved in gang violence from the mid-1990s until 2016.
In 2007, while locked up at HMP Forest Bank, the 43-year-old converted to Islam and became affiliated to a gang named after the terrorist network Al-Qaeda. Speaking to the Daily Express's On The Edge podcast, the ex-gangster said that he was radicalised after meeting the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada in prison and, while under segregation, decided to carry out a terrorist attack upon release. However, he said that returning to a life in gangs "saved him" from carrying out the attack.
He said: "I was thinking in my head that I wanted to get out and go into pubs and bars, somewhere in the UK and carry out a mass attack. That was using firearms and shoot and kill, whatever you want to define it as, and cause as much carnage and damage as I could."
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Sicarius said that he had started to formalise his plans of carrying out a terrorist attack while in prison and decided to target pubs and bars. He said that not only were these venues places where the "infidels" mixed but it would also mean that no children were harmed in his potential attack.
He said: "One thing I was against was harming children, I didn't want to harm children, I couldn't have brought myself to harm kids. So it was pubs and bars because I didn't like people who drink, I didn't like drugs so it fitted into my narrative. These are the people I despise the most so these are the people I want to target. When I was released in 2009, I was still intent on doing it, I was still wanting to do it, I was still aspiring to carry out an attack.
"I tried to contact someone who was well known and has been convicted of terrorism, but nobody got back to me. But had this individual got back to me and given me a little bit of guidance and encouragement, there's no doubt in my mind I would have gone through with the attack."
Sicarius, who now lives in Middleton, said he no longer defines himself as a radical and "strongly stands against" terrorism and civilians being harmed. It was in 2017 that Sicarius's criminal lifestyle hit home after watching a programme in his cell on the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones.
Little Boy Blue, shown in four episodes, tells the story of how Rhys Jones was shot dead when caught in the crossfire of two gun-wielding gangs in Liverpool - an event that shocked the city. Sicarius, who had groomed children into organised crime groups across the North West and "flooded the streets with guns", said that he felt partly responsible for Rhys's murder as he'd put "hundreds of weapons on the streets".
Sicarius has now turned his back on roaming the streets of Anfield and he now helps steer vulnerable and deprived kids away from a life of gangland crime. He said: "I had a passion from that point to change myself as a person and use my expertise to help others and reduce the amount of children becoming involved in knife crime, firearms, county lines, youth violence and anti social behaviour.