Overview
- Julian Valente Pereira, 32, who was found guilty in February, was remanded on Wednesday as Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring sent the case to the Old Bailey for sentencing on a date to be set.
- Goldspring ruled the offence too serious for a magistrates’ court, which can jail for up to 12 months, and said a sentence of about 18 months would be in view at Crown Court to deter similar acts.
- Pereira’s protest on January 1 involved placing a fake stick of “dynamite” at MI5’s Thames House doors with a lighter beside it, prompting a counter‑terror explosives expert to assess the item.
- Police later found the prop was made from rolled A4 paper, brown masking tape and string, yet the court concluded Pereira intended people to think it was real after prosecutors said he sought “maximum attention” for Home Office grievances.
- The trial also heard he went to Buckingham Palace the same day and threw a bag containing his immigration ruling and an ID pierced by a knife over the perimeter gates.