John Nuttall, one of the suspects charged in the alleged Canada Day terror plot on the B.C. legislature is a former drug addict with a criminal history that includes convictions for robbery, kidnapping and aggravated assault dating back to 1996.
Victoria lawyer Tom Morino told the Vancouver Sun that he has represented Nuttall in the past and was contacted by the suspected terrorist Monday night.
Morino told the Times Colonist that Nuttall is a convert to Islam, but that he was not aware if his client was affiliated with any mosque. He also said his client and Korody are currently in a relationship, and possibly married.
UPDATE: John Nuttall has a troubled past involving punk bands, drug use and violence. His former band The Lust Boys is distancing itself from the terror suspect. Amanda Korody has also led a troubled life.
Korody, the adopted daughter of a St. Catharines, Ont. dentist, reportedly had a strained relationship with her parents. Her cousin, Josh Korody, told the Toronto Star he was uncertain if her parents even knew about her speculated marriage.
βWe used to be really close growing up, then she just kind of like moved out, moved across the country,β Korody told the Star.
Nuttall and Korody were also visitors to a local mosque and lived in a Surrey basement suite while collecting welfare, the Vancouver Sun reported.
βIf you saw them, they looked like they are not 100 per cent OK,β said landlord Shanti Thaman to the newspaper. βSomeone must be brainwashing them.β
Reporters who attended Nuttall and Korody's brief court appearance today Tweeted descriptions of the pair.
On the music site Reverbnation, an accountapparently owned by Nuttall includes a song entitled, "In League With Satan", CBC reported.
A sample of the lyrics reads: "We are possessed by all that is evil. The death of your god we demand. We spit at the virgin you worship. And sit at Lord Satan's left hand".
His bandmate, "Stefano Pasta," told CBC News Nuttall wrote other metal songs.
Nuttall has a criminal history and has struggled with addiction, according to articles previously published in the Times Colonist.
On his blog Tuesday, freelance reporter Tom Hawthorn posted two of these stories from the Times Colonist, from 1996 and 2003. Hawthorn commented on Twitter that the stories put "into question the RCMP's Al-Qaeda inspiration" allegations.
According to the 2003 Times Colonist article, Nuttall was a former drug addict sentenced to 18 months in jail after hitting a businessman on the head with a rock and stealing his briefcase. At trial, his lawyer Morino told the court his client was then drug-free.
"He appears to have turned his life around."
Nuttall was earlier sentenced to 18 months in jail for beatings he doled out as a debt-collector's henchman, according to the Times Colonist story from 1996. Nuttall, who was then 22, is described in the article as a "bigger and significantly less intelligent man" than the man he worked for.
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