Teen 'got into a pickle' over assassination plot

A Norwegian teenager accused of flying to the UK to carry out a "hit" has told a jury he thought he would be killed if refused.

Johannes Natland is said to have flown from Norway to Manchester Airport to carry out the killing for a Swedish organised crime group with links to Iran.

The 19-year-old was arrested on 19 March 2025 in the Briar Court Hotel in Huddersfield last March with two guns and 12 rounds of ammunition.

However, giving evidence at the Old Bailey, he said, rather than carry out the attack, he had planned to shoot himself in the foot, telling jurors he had found himself in "a bit of a pickle".

"I thought if I was to say 'no' I would be in serious danger - they're going to hurt my family," he said.

"I thought they'd kill me."

He went on to say he had "never even seen a gun before this day, let alone held one".

Natland has pleaded guilty to possession of firearms and ammunition but denies conspiracy to murder.

During his evidence the defendant said he had started using cannabis aged about 13, before moving on to ecstasy a couple of years later.

"I think I was hooked there and then", he said.

By 2025 he was using drugs "every day, all day".

"A lot of stimulants, amphetamines, weed, cocaine."

Natland had dropped out of school and by December 2024, he said "I had been doing drugs for quite a few years. I had lost my mind a long time ago".

He said he became convinced his parents were going to kill him and one day grabbed a knife and locked himself in his brother's room.

The police were called and Natland ended up in a psychiatric unit with drug-induced psychosis, and then a home "for problem children."

In March 2025 he turned 18 and a few days later got a call from a man called Jahmall Mponda, who he had met in the home.

"He told me to download Signal," said Natland.

Signal, a messaging app, defines itself as having "privacy at its core".

Natland said he received a forwarded message on the app about a "shooting in England".

He was then was added to a Snapchat group and he asked "Who is to be shot?".

The message was sent on 15 March 2025, four days before he was arrested by armed police in West Yorkshire.

The fee on offer for killing an unknown person was €25,000.

Natland said his interest was piqued by the money.

"What were you going to do with the cash when it arrived?", his defence barrister Paul Hynes KC asked.

Asked by defence barrister Paul Hynes KC what he would do with the money, Natland replied: "I was going to buy a lot of drugs."

"I wanted the money...I needed to pay off debts."

The teenager told the jury he had never intended to carry out the murder, but said: "When I realised this is real and these guys are expecting me to go to England and shoot someone, I was thinking I am in a bit of a pickle here.

"I thought if I was to say 'no', I would be in serious danger. They're going to hurt my family.

"It gets to the point where I think if I don't want to do this I am going to get into serious trouble.

"I was terrified and I didn't know what to do."

Natland flew to Manchester on 17 March but was refused entry because he was travelling on an emergency passport with just £40 in cash, no hotel booking and no return flight.

But a UK Border Force officer let him enter until the next flight back to Stavanger three days later.

Under instructions from a Signal user with the username "1", the defendant then travelled to Huddersfield and collected some cash hidden near a footpath tunnel and two guns hidden in woodland.

By the evening of 18 March he was sitting in Room 207 in hotel with the guns under his bed.

"I was just going to shoot myself in the foot," he told the jury.

"I was going to bed thinking that tomorrow is the day that I have to shoot myself."

At 05:15 the next morning firearms officers arrived at the venue to arrest him.

Natland said his detainment after pretending to shoot one of the officers arresting him had come as a relief.

"To be honest I am quite happy", he said.

"I was thinking that this is my way out. I wasn't think that 15 months down the line I would still be in England."

Asked if he would have been capable of shooting anyone, he replied: "No, definitely not."

"The prosecution are trying to make me out as this cold-blooded international hitman. Like I am Liam Neeson from 'Taken'.

"I was never a criminal back home. I was a drug addict."

Under cross examination by prosecutor Alistair Richardson, Natland admitted he had lied to the court in previous defence statements.

He said he had entered into an agreement with the Foxtrot Network, which is infamous for murder and arson, to kill someone by shooting.

Natland accepted that one of the three-person chat groups he was involved in had a group name that meant "Assassin" and that he was supposed to be the assassin.

But he insisted he never intended to carry out the killing.

The trial is expected to conclude next week.

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