Cyber groomer jailed for 12 years

Aabid Khan, who was possibly plotting to attack the Queen, was a "key player" in radicalising others.

He had spent years building up a computer "encyclopaedia" of extremist material, including a file on various members of the Royal family, when he met 15-year-old schoolboy Muhammad Munshi.

He lost little time enrolling the teenager in his "mission in life" - the destruction of Western values and the "wiping out" of all "kuffar" or non-believers. The youngster, whose grandfather is a leading Islamic scholar, was 16 and in the middle of his GCSEs when arrested on his way home from school in 2006.

London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard he had two bags of ball-bearings - the shrapnel of choice for suicide bombers - in his pockets and notes about martyrdom under his bed.

Leading a double life of obedient pupil by day and avid surfer of jihadist websites at night, he also downloaded detailed instructions about making napalm, other high explosives, detonators, and grenades, and "how to kill".

The schoolboy boy then sent them to his mentor-cum-"terrorist facilitator" Khan, and fellow cell member Sultan Muhammad, who also had a large library of terror documents on his computer.

Twice-married Khan, 23, a former fast food restaurant worker, of Otley Road, Undercliffe, Bradford, West Yorkshire, was found guilty of three count of possessing articles for a purpose connected with terrorism.

His cousin and "right-hand man", post office night sorter Muhammad, also 23, from nearby Hanover Square, Manningham, who got 10 years, was convicted of three possession charges and one of making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism. Munshi, now 18, of Greenwood Street, Saville Town, Dewsbury, who will be sentenced next month, was also found guilty of a making offence.