Staff at an MP’s office described to a jury how an Iraqi man threatened to kill them and shoot students at a college if he did not get a passport.

Jasem Saeed, 39, is said to have threatened he would get a rifle with 30 rounds and shoot 29 students and then himself.

Julie Ward, a case worker in the office of Dewsbury Labour MP Paula Sherriff, told Leeds Crown Court she was alone with Saeed when he became aggressive and was shouting.

She said she tried to calm him down and understood he wanted a passport to go back to Iraq to see family. He got some papers from his pocket and threw them down.

“He said if I didn’t give him his passport he would shoot me,” said Mrs Ward. “I couldn’t see a gun but wasn’t to know he did not have one.”

Mrs Ward went and told her office manager Saeed was being aggressive and asked for someone else to come in with her. The office manager warned Saeed to calm down.

Paula Sherriff, Labour MP for Dewsbury.
Paula Sherriff, Labour MP for Dewsbury.

Mrs Ward said another case worker George Flesher then returned with her to continue the meeting. She said Saeed continued shouting and being aggressive “and started to threaten George and said he would shoot him.”

She added: “He mentioned some type of rifle that he would go away and get, a rifle that had 30 rounds and he would go to a local college and shoot 29 students and then shoot himself.”

Although he had threatened us that was my main concern if he did not get what he wanted, which I knew I couldn’t give him, that he would actually go into the community and do what he said he would do.”

Mrs Ward said they managed to usher him out and lock the door. She then rang the Home Office and the police. Under cross-examination by Philip Boyd, defending, Mrs Ward denied she had misunderstood about the college.

Saeed claimed to police and in evidence that he had talked of shooting ISIS recruits at a college in Mosul if he could get back to Iraq. He denied threatening to kill staff at the MP’s office and said he was angry and speaking quickly and they had not heard him properly.

Mr Flesher told the jury he was scared by Saeed’s behaviour. He accepted under cross-examination that he could not remember where the reference to shooting 29 people would happen but said Saeed had not mentioned Mosul.

The jury heard Saeed was born in Iraq but has lived in the UK for 14 years after he was granted “indefinite leave to remain.”

He was refused a travel document in April last year and in January this year applied for “no time limit” status which would allow him to leave but return, something his current status does not allow and he does not have a valid passport.

Nick Adlington, prosecuting, told the jury Saeed went to Ms Sherriff’s office in Wellington Road, Dewsbury, around 11.15am on March 9.

Saeed, of Nelson Street, Dewsbury, has admitted affray but denies two charges of making threats to kill Mrs Ward and Mr Flesher.

He told police his English was not good and they had misunderstood what he was saying. He had never said he would shoot either of them.

He said he had a difficult upbringing being raised in a war torn country and had seen a number of atrocities which had affected his mental state and he suffered from depression.

Saeed admitted he got angry but said he was talking about killing ISIS in his own country and had not said he would go to the “nearest college” and kill 29 people.

He said when angry he talked faster and even Kurdish people struggled to understand him.

The trial continues.