Teenager tried to get man to launch attack

A TEENAGER has been found guilty of a bungled terror plot to groom a young man with learning difficulties to carry out a Lee Rigby copycat killing.

Kazi Islam, 18, who worked for a board game company, tried to persuade 19-year-old Harry Thomas to buy the ingredients for a pipe bomb and to attack one or more soldiers with a kitchen knife or meat cleaver on his command.

He encouraged the older youth to start calling himself Haroon and tried to radicalise him with stories of innocent children murdered by military forces.

But Islam’s schemes were unwittingly sabotaged by Mr Thomas who failed to buy any of the right ingredients for a bomb and let slip to “a few friends” what they were up to.

Islam, of Meanley Road, Newham, east London, denied engaging in the preparation of terrorist acts, saying that he only talked to Mr Thomas about getting the ingredients for a bomb as an “exper iment” radicalisation.

However, a series of exchanges on BlackBerry Messenger and social media sites were uncovered when police raided the house in east London where Islam lived with his family. They included a reference to a bomb.

Islam, a practising Muslim, said he first became interested in issues surrounding A f ghanist an and I r aq because he wanted to find out why Fusilier Rigby had been attacked outside his Woolwich barracks in May 2013.

For “research purposes” he attended meetings and talks held by the banned extremist group al Muhajiroun, viewed Jihadist propaganda online and downloaded a document entitled How to Make Semtex, he said.

Islam was convicted by a majority of 10 to two and the jury deliberated for more than 14 hours.

He will be sentenced on May 29.

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