Ex-GCHQ worker jailed for attempted murder of US spy at leisure centre

Joshua Bowles repeatedly punched and stabbed woman in ‘frenzied’ attack near intelligence agency’s Cheltenham base

A former UK intelligence worker who attempted to kill a US spy in a “politically motivated” knife attack has been jailed for life.

Joshua Bowles, 29, described himself as a “terrorist” after repeatedly stabbing the American woman at a leisure centre just three miles from GCHQ’s base in Cheltenham.

Bowles, a British former employee at GCHQ, was armed with two knives when he ambushed the woman as she walked through the centre car park on the evening of 9 March.

He then chased the woman into the reception area of the centre where he resumed his vicious assault.

The moment Joshua Bowles attacks the woman in the car park at the leisure centre (CTPSE/PA)

In the moments after the attack, the ex-computer software coding developer said he had targeted the woman because of “the power that the American NSA [National Security Agency] have and the things they do”, adding “I make a pretty s*** terrorist, don’t I?”.

At The Old Bailey on Monday morning, Bowles was jailed for life with a minimum prison term of 13 years after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of the woman, referred to by the code number 99230; and of assaulting a second person, causing actual bodily harm.

Sentencing him, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said it was a “politically motivated attack” driven by “anger and resentment” toward GCHQ and women.

Joshua Bowles in the reception area of the leisure centre during the attack (CTPSE/PA)

The prosecution had asserted that Bowles’s attack was a planned, terror-related assault.

On Friday, the court had heard how the woman had been playing netball at the centre and was leaving with a friend, who was a fellow US national identified as 25869. CCTV footage showed the pair walking into the car park followed by the defendant, who had been waiting in his car with two knives in a rucksack.

Bowles, of Welwyn Mews, Cheltenham, said “excuse me” and then repeatedly punched the woman in the face. Then when the victim and her friend ran back inside the leisure centre, Bowles attacked the woman again.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny KC said: “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. The attack which the perpetrator launched was intended to be lethal – that the helpless victim survived it was mere happenstance.

“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 of the United States.”

A visitor to the leisure centre called Steve Bunn intervened in the attack, grabbing the defendant and enabling the two women to move away while Bowles dropped a knife on the floor.

Mr Bunn recalled that, while waiting for police after the women had fled, Bowles said he could no longer “handle the murky waters of ethics and whether they are doing the right thing and the power that the American NSA have and the things they do. It’s a good job I didn’t have a gun, isn’t it?

An aerial picture of GCHQ, where Bowles formerly worked (GCHQ/PA)

“What have I done? I’ve tried to kill her. I can’t believe this … they pay me all this money, I just couldn’t face the ethics of it … I make a pretty s*** terrorist, don’t I?”

The woman suffered cuts to her abdomen, chest and thigh, the court heard on Friday. A victim impact statement was read out. It said the attack had “utterly and completely changed” her life.

Mr Tim Forte, representing Bowles, said his client expressed “his profound regret, remorse and shame at what he has done”. Mr Forte dismissed the defendant’s comments as “bravado”, having realised his reasons were “petty and embarrassing”.

His twin motivations were “rejection by the object of his affections” and a desire to hurt his ex-employer “for employment reasons”, Mr Forte said.