RESTAURANT bomber Nicky Reilly is being kept at a secure psychiatric unit while medical staff assess whether he should serve his 18-year sentence in a prison or a hospital.

The 23-year-old was handed the lengthy jail term at The Old Bailey on January 30 after pleading guilty to attempted murder and engaging in preparation for terrorism for his efforts to detonate bombs at the Giraffe restaurant in Princesshay last May.

Reilly, of King Street, Stonehouse, had no previous convictions of any sort, yet turned bomber after converting to Islam and – according to his mother Kim and police investigators — being groomed over the internet by radical elements abroad.

Commenting on his move to a psychiatric unit, his mother Kim said: “It’s a better place for him.

“The staff are on call all the time, they talk to him about any anxieties.”

At 16 Reilly was diagnosed with the autistic condition Asperger syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder. Residents around his home in Flora Court openly described him as well-mannered, polite and nicknamed him the “Big Friendly Giant”.

The former Lipson Community College student has so far spent two months of a expected three-month stay at Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire.

Kim, who has regularly visited her son at both HMP Belmarsh and Broadmoor, said she hoped the review period would mean he spent the rest of his sentence in a secure hospital.

She added: “They’re really lovely people there. When I visited they went out of their way to help and explain things to me.

“I was allowed to go onto the ward on my first visit and see his room, which I was grateful for.

“I felt so relieved when he was allowed to go to the hospital but I am worried about what will happen after the three months are up. They could send him back to prison, but I’d rather he spent his 18 years at the hospital.

“If he goes back to prison I will lose him – something will happen to him.

“Belmarsh is a holding prison, but there are still lifers in there. They know Nicky’s not right to be in there with them, and I do fear for Nicky’s life in that situation.”

Kim has repeatedly defended her son, claiming he was not evil, but was used by others to carry out their evil deeds.

Her main hope now, she said, is that he will receive treatment at a suitable secure hospital rather than suffer brutality at the hands of category A prisoners in prison.

She said: “He’s in the right place at Broadmoor. It’s not a prison, it’s a hospital and there he’s not an inmate, he’s a patient.”

A spokesman for the National Autistic Society explained how Asperger’s affected the way a person communicates and relates to others, both in public and in jail.

They said: “Autism is a hidden disability and it is not always immediately obvious that there is something wrong.

“When a person with autism or Asperger syndrome is within the criminal justice system, it is important that their condition is recognised and understood when deciding the appropriate course of action and intervention.

“A lack of appropriate support, can otherwise cause further difficulties and potentially serious consequences for the individual.”