In a note on his phone from August 2025, Pereira wrote about “MI5 terrorising people inside hotels”, and added: “I need to see the King.”
He also said he planned to “give information” to the Archbishop of Canterbury as a precaution.
When giving evidence, Pereira insisted the device he left outside MI5 would not have been mistaken for an explosive, but added: “The news inside was dynamite.”
Pereira was arrested in his room at an asylum hotel in Uxbridge, west London, and told officers about his “long and tireless battle with the Home Office to try to attain asylum”, said the prosecutor.
The court heard that Pereira made allegations of Home Office “corruption”, claimed illegal immigrants were employed by the government department and those in the system were living in “squalor”.
Judge Goldspring was also told that Pereira handed himself in to police as an overstayer in October 2020, but later sought asylum after being told to leave the UK.
He was placed in asylum seeker accommodation in June 2021, asylum was refused in 2023, and his appeal against that decision was rejected by a judge on 31 December 2025.
The court heard that Pereira’s paid-for accommodation was withdrawn on 9 January.
In his police interview, he told officers he had schizophrenia and had been hearing voices in his head.
The judge asked for reports on Pereira’s mental health and risk of reoffending, and warned that he may be jailed or sent to the crown court for sentencing.