'My son was brainwashed'

The father of alleged "shoe bomber" Richard Reid said today his son must have been "brainwashed" to want to blow up a plane.

Robin Reid, a criminal who has spent 18 years in jail and who was in prison when his son was born, said: "He's not a bad lad. I can't imagine him doing anything like this without being involved with somebody else."

Richard Reid, 28, is due to appear before a US court today accused of trying to ignite explosives hidden in his black suede basketball shoes during an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on 22 December.

It has now emerged he had visited seven countries before his suspected attempt, having travelled to Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Brussels, Amsterdam, France, Israel and possibly Afghanistan, adding weight to fears he was part of a well-funded terrorist cell. He is thought to have been given the shoes packed with C4 plastic explosive in Amsterdam two weeks ago.

Reid's father said today: "My son is a determined boy and I can imagine him being determined enough to blow himself to bits. But I just can't believe that he would want to hurt anyone else in doing it - unless, that is, he has been brainwashed, which seems the case.

"He would not have done it off his own bat without being coaxed, talked into it."

Robin Reid went to the same Brixton mosque as his son. He said he had introduced his son to Islam after he became a Moslem because of racial discrimination. "I don't feel guilty about encouraging him to be a Moslem because the sort of Islam I encountered wasn't about blowing up planes - it was about loving mankind."

Mr Reid, unemployed, who has served most of his jail sentences for stealing cars and burglary, said he last saw his son three or four years ago.

"I met him for a chat and he told me that he was going to Iran - soon after that he disappeared," he said. "I got a letter from him in Iran telling me that he was following the Moslem faith to the letter and that he was planning to stay there.

"He didn't say anything about Jihad or Holy War to me but he knows that if he had I would have had a word in his ear. Religious violence just isn't on."

Reid's mother has also spoken for the first time of her son's alleged terrorist involvement. Lesley Hughes who lives in Frome, Somerset, released a statement through a firm of Bristol-based solicitors.

The statement read: "Other than what my client has heard or read in the media, she has no knowledge of this matter. As any mother would be, she is deeply shocked and concerned about the allegations made against her son, but has no further comment to make."

The daughter of a magistrate, she met her son's father in 1972 when she visited London on a college course. They separated in 1978 and divorced in 1984.

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