Emma Gargitter prosecutes former employee of UK intelligence agency GCHQ

Former employee of UK intelligence agency GCHQ, Joshua Bowles, has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 13 years for the attempted murder of a US National Security Agency worker in a “premeditated, targeted and vicious” knife attack at a leisure centre.

On 9 March 2023, Joshua Bowles, armed with two knives, punched and stabbed the woman repeatedly as she left the leisure centre with a friend. The woman was left with a 6cm cut to her lower abdomen, a 2cm wound to the front of her chest and a 2cm wound to her right thigh.

From the start of 2023, he had carried out reconnaissance and research on the victim and other NSA workers at GCHQ. He researched her personal life and discovered she played netball at the leisure centre. The sentencing judge found that he had targeted the woman because of her role as a US government employee in the NSA, and determined that this was a terrorist offence.

Bowles pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of the woman. He also admitted assaulting a man who attempted to intervene, causing him actual bodily harm.

Emma Gargitter was instructed as junior counsel for the prosecution by the CPS Counter Terrorism Division. She prosecutes and defends in high-profile and complex cases involving serious crime and violent offences, as well as matters concerning national security including counter-terrorism. Read more: [Emma Gargitter Profile ]

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