My client isn’t a terrorist, he’s a fat idiot, says lawyer of man accused in US ‘beheading plot’

A man accused of participating in a plot to behead conservative US blogger Pamela Geller became consumed by Islamic State group propaganda because he was overweight, lonely and desperate for an escape from his bleak life, his defence lawyer said Wednesday.

Federal authorities say David Wright conspired with his uncle and a third man to kill Geller on behalf of the terrorist group because they were upset she organised a Prophet Mohammad cartoon contest in Texas. The plot was never carried out. Wright also wanted to conduct other attacks in the US and encouraged his uncle to kill police officers, officials say.

Wright’s lawyer told jurors during her opening statement he was never really interested in helping Islamic State or committing violence. When Wright was allegedly plotting with the other men, he weighed more than 230kg, lived with his mother and had no career, Jessica Hedges said.

In the online world of Islamic State, he found the attention he was craving and the ability to pretend he was someone else, she said. He was a “complete idiot,” but he is not guilty, she said.

“In 2015, David felt very, very fat, very failed, and was living in a world of fantastical ideas,” Hedges told jurors at the federal courthouse in Boston. “He hid behind screens, looking for an escape, looking for a distraction from who he really was.”

Wright, 28, is charged with obstruction of justice, conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation and conspiring to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors attempted to portray Wright as the ringleader of the conspiracy, arguing he recruited his uncle Ussamah Rahim, of Boston, and another man, Nicholas Rovinski, of Warwick, Rhode Island, to help him commit attacks.

The three men agreed to kill Geller in the summer of 2015 after the cartoon contest in suburban Dallas, prosecutors say. During the contest, two other men opened fire outside and wounded a security guard before they were killed in a shoot-out with law enforcement assigned to guard the event.