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Schoolboy terrorist gets two years

Pa
Friday 19 September 2008 11:33 BST

Britain's youngest terrorist was today locked up for two years after plans to cause death and destruction were found hidden in his bedroom.

Schoolboy Hammaad Munshi was just 15 when he was recruited into a worldwide plot to wipe out non-Muslims and longed to become a "martyr".

Munshi, a GCSE student and grandson of a leading Islamic scholar, led a double life, obediently attending school by day and surfing jihadist websites at night.

He was part of a cell of cyber groomers devoted to brainwashing the vulnerable into killing "kuffar", or non-believers.

Munshi, 18, of Greenwood Street, Saville Town, Dewsbury, West Yorks, was found guilty last month of compiling information likely to be useful in terrorism.

London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard how he downloaded files about making napalm, detonators and grenades for himself and terrorist comrades Aabid Khan and Sultan Muhammad.

Sentencing him at the Old Bailey today to two years in a young offenders' institution, Judge Timothy Pontius said that he "fell under the spell of fanatical extremists".

He added: "There is no doubt that you knew what you were doing."

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