Edinburgh terrorism trial: Gabrielle Friel claims he planned to stand in street with crossbow to 'provoke police into shooting him'

Gabrielle Friel,22, claimed that an earlier incident where he went to Edinburgh College armed with knives came after he had found out about “suicide by cops” following Internet researches.

Friel, who is expressing sympathy for an Incel motivated mass murderer, denied the hated women.

Speaking about suicide by cops, Friel said: "It is a popular way to die in America. In America cops carry guns."

He said he decided it was "a good way of killing myself".

He was giving evidence on the fourth day of proceedings against him at the High Court in Edinburgh where he denies any wrongdoing.

Friel said he had researched ‘how to end your life’ before going to Edinburgh College in November 2017 with the weapons where he wounded a police officer who was helping to restrain him.

He told jurors that the suicide bid had come after previous attempts to take his life during his schooldays in Singapore.

He said he was feeling depressed and a test was getting nearer and nearer.

He told the court: "I knew I had to end my life before the test.”

He said he was not doing well in his subject and did not want to be kicked out of college.

Indonesian-born Friel, who had come to Edinburgh in January 2017, said he researched on the internet how to carry out suicide.

He was educated in Singapore until arriving in Scotland as a teenager.

He told the court that his life in Singapore was "really stressful because it is all about education" and "if you want to get a good job you need to get good grades.”

He said his grades were fine at the beginning but began to go down and he was subjected to bullying. In his last year at primary school he was subjected to having his pants pulled down.

"For four years in high school I was constantly bullied. It is terrible. I am talking about people who say if you pay them money they can help me kill myself," he said.

Friel said he was subjected to both physical and psychological bullying.

‘I was calculating how to die’

The court also heard how Friel bought a crossbow last year which could fire a bolt at 340 feet per second. He also said he bought ‘armour’ which he planned to wear.

He also purchased an E-Book called Improvised Munitions Handbook.

When Richard Goddard QC asked him why he had bought the book, Mr Friel added: “The handbook told you how to make a slam gun.”

The court heard that he also made searches online about a mass shooting at Columbine High School and made searches regarding a black trench coat and a duffle bag.

Mr Goddard said that the people who carried out the Columbine shooting wore black trench coats and used duffle bags to transport their weapons and uggested Friel was “copying” them.

The advocate depute also said Friel had watched the Basement Tapes - a recording made by the people responsible for the Columbine shooting before the attack took place.

Friel denied this meant he was planning a mass shooting. He told the jury he was “obsessed” by mass shootings and that he had problems from stopping himself thinking about such things.

When Mr Goddard asked him why this was, Friel replied: “I just don’t know why. I get sucked into it and I can’t get out it.”

Speaking about the people responsible for the Columbine shooting, Mr Goddard asked: “You admired these two killers didn’t you?”

Friel replied: “No."

He told the court that he wasn’t going to use the crossbow to shoot anybody but planned to stand in the street with the weapon and wear the ‘armour' and appear threatening.

He said: "I was trying to provoke the police into shooting me.

“When I was calculating how to die, I thought I had a good chance of them shooting me because I was looking as menacing as possible.

“There was no plating in the armour - that was so the bullets could pass through me.”

Friel also said he tried to secure a firearm because he considered it as a means to shoot himself.

Mr Goddard said: “Were you planning on killing people?”

He replied: “No.”

Friel also denied being an Incel (involuntary celibate).

The court heard previously from a leading expert on Incels, Dr Stephane Baele, that such men believe they are the ‘bottom’ grouping of society and that physically attractive women are at the top. They also blame women for their inability to have sex lives and endorse acts like rape and acid attacks against females.

But Friel said that if he hated women he wouldn’t have allowed a woman called Sarah Drummond to be his social worker.

Friel is standing trial facing two charges under the Terrorism act allegedly committed between June 1 and August 16 last year.

It is alleged that at his home address in Comely Bank Road, in Edinburgh and at Grindlay Court social work centre and the Royal Edinburgh Hospital he possessed a crossbow, scope, 15 arrows, a machete and a ballistic vest in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable suspicion that it was for "a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism".

It is also alleged that, with the intention of committing acts of terrorism, he conducted online research in a bid to acquire a firearm, in relation to spree killing mass murders and in partiuclar those committed by individuals expressing motivation from or affiliation with incels.

Friel is alleged to have expressed a desire to carry out a spree killing and to have expressed affinity with and sympathy for one incel-motivated mass murderer.

He denies the charges.

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