‘Titchmarsh terrorist’ who plotted 18in sword attack faces prison
A SELF-proclaimed Alan Titchmarsh fan is facing jail after being convicted yesterday of plotting a terror attack.
Sahayb Abu, 27, spent £400 of his benefits money – including a £100 Universal Credit Covid payment – to buy equipment including an 18in gladiator-style sword for an outrage planned in the middle of the pandemic last year.
The aspiring rapper is the sixth member of his family to become involved with Islamic State, it can now be revealed.
Abu, pictured, was caught by undercover police rapping about carrying out a knife attack and the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby just weeks after being released from a prison sentence for burglary.
In one song, he said: ‘I’m trying to see many Lee Rigbys’ heads rolling on the ground.’ He claimed at the Old Bailey it was part of plan to create a rap parody act on social media.
He also told jurors he was an avid fan of Titchmarsh who watched videos of the celebrity gardener to fuel his dreams of becoming a vegetable farmer.
He claimed to have been inspired by footballer Marcus Rashford to help children and planned to provide irrigation for crops in his family’s native Somalia.
But in conversations with an undercover officer, Abu had spoken of assassinating an imam and had researched a number of foreign embassies in London
He claimed the sword and equipment – including a combat vest and two balaclavas – that he bought shortly before his arrest last July were just props for his parody rap project.
But jurors yesterday convicted him of preparing a terrorist act. His brother Muhamed Abu, 32, was acquitted of failing to tell police about the plot.
Muhamed wept yesterday, shouting ‘he is a clown’ as Abu was taken to the cells.
It can now be revealed that other family members linked to IS include two of Abu’s half-brothers who were killed fighting for the terror group in Syria in 2015.
His sister Asma Aweys, 32, was imprisoned for collecting terrorist information, while another half-brother and his brother-in-law were jailed for disseminating terrorist material. Abu will be sentenced on April 9.