A DJ accused of planting a ‘bomb’ outside Blackburn Town Hall insisted he had nothing but contempt for the terror group ISIS.

Craig Slee, 49, is on trial at Preston Crown Court, accused of leaving an alleged improvised electronic device on a bench in King William Street on May 3 last year.

Shoppers were evacuated from Blackburn Mall while bomb disposal experts and armed police ensure the ‘bomb’ was safe, the court heard.

Arrested at the scene, Slee said he was part of a rave collective, Spiral Tribe, and wanted to raise awareness of terror attacks in Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

He also claimed he had invited other musicians, and homeless people he had met in the town centre, to join him, with a view to making a music video.

Interviewed about what he had done, Slee also insisted that he had sympathies with the Yazidi, indigenous people targeted by ISIS.

Questioned by Det Con Fiona Hall, he said the book he left on the bench focused on a Yazidi girl, targeted by terrorists.

“It’s ‘The Girl Who Beat Isis’, not ‘The Girl Who Joined Isis',” he told police.

He also said the other book left there, The Island of Isis, had nothing to do with the terrorists, whom he hated.

Later he told DC Hall he taped the books to the montage as they were issued by the library and he didn’t want them to blow away.

Other items assembled on the bench included a laptop, with a mobile phone attached and covered in electrical tape, a silver record box, also taped up, the books, an egg cup, tobacco tin, a statue of Buddha and a box of mini party ring biscuits.

Slee said that the egg cup and the tobacco tin both had links with his late mother, as did the mobile phone.

He told police he first joined Spiral Tribe in 1992 and had kept in touch with members throughout his DJ career.

Det Con Hall said a number of phone calls had been received from the public and she asked whether he appreciated why his montage may have sparked concerns.

He replied: “They were props to open narrow minds.”

Prosecutors say passerby Sarah Quinn raised the alarm after she saw the montage and Slee’s empty wheelchair nearby.

Slee, of Logwood Street, Blackburn, denies placing an article with intent to cause fear of an explosion. The trial continues.