The Man Who Stopped a Hospital Bombing With a Hug

An Extraordinary Act of Courage at St James's Hospital

Nathan Newby stepped outside for a cigarette break. He ended up preventing a terrorist attack on a maternity ward. If that sounds like the plot of a film you would never believe, well, real life has always had a flair for the improbable.

Newby, 35, from Leeds, was a patient at St James's Hospital on 20 January 2023 when he struck up a conversation with a stranger outside the building. That stranger was Mohammad Farooq, a 29-year-old clinical support worker at the very same hospital, who had arrived that evening with a homemade pressure cooker bomb containing almost 10kg of explosives, an imitation firearm, a knife, and nails.

His target? The Gledhow Wing maternity unit. His stated goal? To kill as many nurses as possible.

Several Hours of Quiet Persuasion

The two men talked for several hours. About an hour into the conversation, Farooq revealed the bomb. At that point, most people would have run. Newby did the opposite. He stayed calm, kept talking, and strategically guided Farooq away from the building.

What followed was a remarkable exercise in human connection under the most extreme pressure imaginable. Farooq, a self-radicalised lone-wolf terrorist inspired by Daesh ideology and driven by deep personal grievances, had planned this attack meticulously. He had obtained bomb-making instructions from an al-Qaeda publication, modelled his device on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombs (with twice the explosive yield), and had even researched RAF Menwith Hill as his primary target before failing to breach its security.

St James's Hospital was his Plan B. Newby made sure it stayed just a plan.

A Cuddle That Changed Everything

Here is where the story takes its most disarming turn. During their conversation, it was Farooq who asked Newby for a cuddle. Not once, but multiple times. Newby agreed. And then came the words that ended the crisis: "Phone the police before I change my mind."

Newby did exactly that.

Police and bomb disposal teams arrived to find a viable device that could have caused catastrophic casualties in a packed maternity wing. In Farooq's car, they discovered additional explosive materials, a floorplan of four hospital wards, and the imitation Gediz 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

Justice and Recognition

Farooq was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court on 2 July 2024 after a three-week trial. He had separately pleaded guilty to multiple charges including possession of explosive substance with intent to endanger life and possession of information useful to terrorists. On 21 March 2025, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb called Newby "an extraordinary, ordinary man", and it is hard to argue with that assessment.

Newby is now set to receive the George Medal, the second-highest civilian gallantry award. It is the first time he has spoken publicly about what happened that night, timed to the medal ceremony in March 2026.

The Quiet Hero

What strikes you most about this story is Newby's understated take on it all. He described Farooq as "probably a nice guy" who was "going through bad things at the time" and said he was simply "in the right place at the right time."

That is a spectacularly modest way to describe talking down a man armed with enough explosives to dwarf the Boston Marathon bombs, but perhaps that modesty is precisely what made it work. No confrontation, no heroic tackle, no dramatic standoff. Just one person treating another person like a human being, and in doing so, saving countless lives.

In an age when we are constantly told to be afraid, Newby's story is a quietly powerful reminder that compassion, even directed at someone who intends terrible harm, can be the most effective weapon of all.

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