Donald Stewart-Whyte PA

AN ART student accused of plotting to bomb flights from London said the little he knew about explosives had come from Hollywood films and newspapers.

Donald Stewart-Whyte, 23, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, told Woolwich Crown Court he had no detailed knowledge of bombs or how to make them.

He is on trial, along with seven others, of conspiracy to murder by smuggling bombs disguised as soft drinks on flights from London to the US in 2006.

Stewart-Whyte told the jury he had seen liquid explosives in the John Wayne film The War Wagon and 51st State, which stars Samuel L Jackson.

"The film is a bit fantastical but it has this chemist who made two bottles of liquid, they were in mini bar bottles... I took it to the effect that it was put together and exploded"

Describing the second movie, he said: "The film is a bit fantastical but it has this chemist who made two bottles of liquid, they were in mini bar bottles... I took it to the effect that it was put together and exploded."

Stewart-Whyte said he had gained some knowledge from reading details of terrorist attacks on Madrid and London in newspapers, but other than that knew nothing about how someone would make a bomb.

His barrister, Ali Bajwa, told the court that Stewart-Whyte was "completely different" from his co-defendants and the prosecution evidence went a "very long way towards establishing Donald Stewart-Whyte's innocence".

He went on: "We say it would be very difficult to see where he fits in this case because he doesn't fit in this case at all. It's our case that he had absolutely nothing to do at all with a terrorist conspiracy to kill a very large number of people in late 2006."