Terrorist sent back to jail after changing name

A CONVICTED terrorist has been jailed after breaking the terms of a supervision order by not telling police he had changed his name.

Ray Edmondson, formerly Abdul Raheem, said he had only changed his name to get cheaper car insurance, but Birmingham Crown Court instead decided he had committed a “flagrant and wanton” breach of restrictions.

In 2009 Edmondson admitted failing to disclose information on terrorism and was jailed with three others over a plot to send equipment to terrorists fighting British soldiers in Afghani- stan. All four had at the time been part of a terrorist cell run by Parviz Khan, who was himself jailed for life in 2008 for plotting to kidnap and behead a Muslim British soldier.

Edmondson was jailed for a year and then made subject to a 10-year order meaning he had to tell police of any changes to his details and notify them if he travelled abroad, or stayed away from his home.

However, despite annual visits to police stations, he failed to tell them that after his release he had changed his name by deed poll from Abdul Raheem to Edmondson. The 40-year-old, from Coleshill Road, Birmingham, denied the breach but a jury found him guilty and he was sentenced on Friday.

Jailing the married father, Judge Mark Wall QC told him: “Each time you went to the police station you answered in the name Abdul Raheem and each time were given an opportunity to tell them of a change of name. You failed to do so. You lied to them, in effect.”

Judge Wall told him: “Using a name the police were unaware of with an address they knew nothing about was more than just an unhappy coincidence.”

Calling the breach “significant” and “particularly serious”, he said: “There is a unique public interest in ensuring people convicted of offences such as these, which Parliament has decided should be monitored, are effectively monitored by police. For terrorist offences, the inability to effectively monitor people poses a threat to the public generally and the well-being of the state.”

Handing down a 15-month jail sentence, Judge Wall said he was unable to suspend the term because of the severity of the offence.

The judge said: “For this flagrant and wanton breach over such a period, there must be a sentence that deters you and, importantly in cases like this, deters others.”

Edmondson was told he would serve half his sentence in prison, and the rest on licence.