Knifeman, 29, who used two knives to stab female US NSA spy outside a leisure centre near GCHQ pleads guilty to attempted murder

A man who launched a knife attack on a woman he believed worked at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) pleads guilty to attempted murder. 

Joshua Bowles, 29, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey today after stabbing a woman outside a leisure centre in Cheltenham earlier this year. . 

The woman was taken to hospital with multiple stab injuries after the incident at around 9.15pm on March 9 in Tommy Taylors Lane.

The victim was a US national who works for the National Security Agency of the USA – at the time of the attack she was on secondment at GCHQ. 

Bowles – also an employee of GCHQ, but left in 2022 – was armed with two knives when he attacked the woman as she was leaving after playing netball at Leisure at Cheltenham, three miles from the UK intelligence agency base.

Joshua Bowles, 29, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey after stabbing a woman outside a leisure centre in Cheltenham

Pictured: Police vehicles outside Cheltenham leisure centre in March 

Bowles, of Welwyn Mews, Cheltenham, who appeared via videolink from HMP Belmarsh wearing a grey tracksuit also pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He had assaulted Alex Fuentes who intervened while he was attempting to murder the woman.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Bowles she hoped he will be sentenced before the end of October. 

Nick Price, Head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: ‘This extremely violent attack against two innocent people was completely unprovoked.

‘It is right that those who commit violent crimes like this should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law to protect the public, and our thoughts continue to be with the victims and their families.’

Pictured is GCHQ, the headquarters of the intelligence and security agency whose staff work to identify and disrupt terror plots across the UK

Prosecutor Emma Gargitter said: ‘The prosecution evidence indicates that from the very early part of 2023 he began to conduct reconnaissance and research on the victim – that he researched her personal life using the internet and discovered the leisure centre where the attack ultimately occurred hosted netball games where she participates.

‘The reconnaissance included dummy runs or research visits to the leisure centre on February 9, 2023 and then on March 9, 2023 when she was in attendance playing a netball game the fact and timing of which had been available to the defendant through the internet.

‘He attended the leisure centre with two knives in a rucksack and waited in a carpark for her to exit. She was with a friend and he attempted to stab her in a car park while he was behind her.

‘He was fended off by the victim and her friend and the intervention of Mr Fuentes who was punched.

‘The victim and her friend escaped and entered the leisure centre. Mr Bowles entered with a second knife – the first knife had broken in the car park – and he attacked her again in reception stabbing her.

‘The attack came to an end on the intervention of people around and the victim was able to escape the reception back into the netball court assisted by first aiders until the arrival of police and ambulance.

‘During this period the defendant remained in the reception area speaking to an individual who had intervened.

‘The victim of the attempted murder was herself working at GCHQ contemporaneously with the defendant. She was however although working at GCHQ an employee of the US government there.

The identity of the victim has not been revealed. The US national works for the National Security Agency of the USA – at the time of the attack, she was working at GCHQ. [Stock Image] 

‘He had researched not only the victim but two of her predecessors who had worked in the same role for the US government – so three in succession had been researched by Mr Bowles in the lead up to the attack.’

Ms Gargitter said the crown would argue the offence should be treated as linked to terrorism.

Time Forte, defending, said this would be disputed and reports have been provided showing Bowles had depression and autism spectrum disorder.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Bowles would remain in custody until sentencing in mid-October at the Old Bailey. She ordered a pre-sentence report to assess dangerousness.