4 years for friend of London Bridge gang

A FRIEND of the London Bridge terror attack mastermind was jailed yesterday for posting extremist propaganda on YouTube.

Taha Hussain, 21, ran two channels on the Google-owned platform and shared other incendiary material on WhatsApp and another messenging app called Telegram.

As a member of hate preacher Anjem Choudary’s inner circle, Hussain used the popular website and phone apps to fuel extremism worldwide. Among the videos was an Islamic State guide which urged militants to attack their own countries if they are barred from joining the terror group.

Hussain was close to Khuram Butt, 27, who led two other men on a rampage at London Bridge and Borough Market in June, killing eight people. One source described the pair as ‘close pals’, and said Hussain could easily have been part of the plot had he not already been arrested.

The fanatic, of Slough, Berkshire, was found guilty of seven counts of disseminating a terror document after a trial in July.

Hussain yesterday sat silently in the dock at Kingston Crown Court as his barrister, Frida Hussain, claimed he was ‘committed’ to turning his life around.

But Judge Paul Dodgson disagreed, jailing the IS propagandist for four and a half years.