A man who was jailed for 15 years after he almost blew up North Greenwich station has lost his appeal against his sentence.

Weapons-obsessed Damon Smith planted a home-made bomb filled with ball-bearings on the Jubilee Line in October 2016.

But at an appeal hearing on Wednesday, three judges told the court Smith's sentence could not be considered "excessive" and there had been a significant degree of planning and intention to endanger life in his actions.

He put it in a rucksack and left it on the floor, where it was timed to blow up once it arrived at North Greenwich station.

Smith, 21, built the device with a £2 clock from Tesco after finding an online Al-Qaeda article entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom.

He claimed it was a prank but was found guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent following a trial at the Old Bailey in May last year.

Smith, who has Aspergers Syndrome, was sentenced to 15 years in a young offenders' institution with an extended period of five years on licence.

The trial judge said that although Smith had an interest in Islam, he was not motivated by terrorism.

At the Court of Appeal on Tuesday (March 13) three judges said the sentence could not be criticised as in any way excessive.

Lord Justice Treacy said the offence was aggravated by a significant degree of planning and there was an intention to endanger life, rather than merely damaging property.

While Smith's autism was a major factor in mitigation, nonetheless he retained "a significant degree of culpability for actions intended to cause really serious injury to others in a public place and which came very close to fruition".

He added that the sentence was "very significantly less" than might be expected for an offender of mature age acting with terrorist motives who did not suffer from an autistic condition.