Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Stalking hell for widow in hol romance
IS fanatic switches plea to guilty one week into trial on terror charges
A WIDOW’S holiday romance in Greece became a stalking nightmare.
The woman, 54, who lost her husband two months before the trip, was bombarded with calls and texts by hotel manager Georgios Katisikidis, 39.
He then followed her from Skiathos to the UK.
Norwich crown court heard one morning alone she received 125 messages.
Katisikidis also told her he had sent sexual images of them to her family.
He harassed his victim for five months, then held her captive for two hours and attacked her at her Norfolk home.
Katisikidis fled to Greece but was extradited. He was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty. A judge said: “It wasn’t unrequited love. It turned to violence.” A JIHADI who called for Prince George to be attacked at school is facing life in jail after dramatically changing his plea to guilty.
Husnain Rashid had denied a string of terror charges. But yesterday, a week into the trial, he admitted the offences.
The 32-year-old had posted exchanges that the prosecution said built up a “toolkit for the lone wolf attacker”.
In one, he included a picture of four-year-old George outside his London prep school with masked jihadi fighters superimposed next to him. It had the chilling threat: “Even the Royal Family will not be left alone. School starts early.”
From his bedroom, unemployed web designer Rashid styled himself online as a teacher to the “lone mujahid”, urging attacks across the world including poisoning supermarket ice cream.
In just one year, he posted 360,000 messages and offered advice to British jihadis already in Syria.
He one day hoped to go there and join Islamic State. Other potential targets Rashid looked at included the 2017 General Election, Wimbledon, the Trafford Centre, Liverpool Lime Street, the BBC’S Proms in the Park concert, British Army bases and this year’s Russia World Cup.
He posted suggestions of which British football stadiums could be hit, following a deadly 2016 attack at Besiktas in Turkey.
And Rashid urged people to “fight and spill the blood to the apes in your land”. He added: “Start planning, start scouting targets, start monitoring entry/exit routes, start preparing tools and weapons/explosive”. Prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC told Woolwich crown court in South East London: “[Rashid] offered assistance with almost every conceivable type of attack capable of being launched by a single individual. Attacks with poison, vehicles, weapons, bombs, chemicals and knives.
“He has set in motion numerous terrorist plots and exhorted others on numerous occasion to take part.
“The hallmark is that they would require little preparation, a knife attack, a vehicle attack. He has made repeated comments about maximising the number of casualties.”
When police tracked Rashid to his home in Nelson, Lancs, he tried to throw
PROSECUTOR ON RASHID
away a mobile phone that contained a “treasure trove” of evidence, only for it to land at the feet of an officer covering the back of the house.
He admitted preparing and encouraging terrorism. Three charges of disseminating a terrorist publication and failing to provide his passwords were left to lie on the file.
No evidence had been heard by the jury before Rashid changed his plea.
It is understood he had planned to deny the postings, from several different usernames, were his doing.
Miss Darlow said official sentencing guidelines suggest a starting point of life in jail with a minimum of 25 years.
Judge Andrew Lees told Rashid that the trial had heard the “most disturbing allegations”. He added: “It is inevitable that you will receive a very lengthy prison sentence.”