Hospital beds blocked by mentally ill migrant criminals

Dr Mark Swinton, a leading forensic psychiatrist, said illegal immigrants like Imtiaz Ahmed, a patient with schizophrenia who strangled his landlady six years ago, could block hospital beds indefinitely.

It has “proved very difficult” to discharge mentally ill patients who were not entitled to be in the UK, he warned, as they were not legally entitled to any post-release support in the community.

Dr Swinton, who has worked on high-profile cases including that of Cumbrian gunman Derrick Bird, urged the Appeal Court judges to make an order which would see Ahmed returned to prison - from where he could be deported - once his mental illness has been effectively treated.

But the three judges ruled they could not allow flaws in the system to influence their decision and ordered his release to be decided by medical professionals.

Lord Justice Elias said he accepted Dr Swinton's comments regarding the difficulties around Ahmed’s discharge, which could see him remain in a hospital bed and may be "damaging to the appellant and to the wider public".

He added: “If Dr Swinton is right about this - and we have no reason to suppose he is not - it is indeed a most unhappy state of affairs and the authorities must look at it speedily.

"But we cannot allow it to play a part in deciding the proper disposal in this case."

The court heard Ahmed, now 25, was lodging with Ms Hullah and her partner at their home in Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, when he killed her in front of her 15-month-old son in December 2006.

He had been allowed to stay at his victim’s house as an act of kindness because her partner, Muhammed Farhan Akhter, was asked to look after him by relatives in Pakistan.

However, Ahmed was so ill that he was found unfit to enter a plea and it was not until July 2011 that he admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He was handed imprisonment for public protection and ordered to serve at least five years and three months behind bars, although that minimum term was later cut to three years and three months on appeal.

The court heard medical experts were of the view he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killing and therefore his responsibility was significantly diminished.

By the time he was finally jailed in 2011, he had already served 15 months in custody on remand and three-and-a-half years in a secure hospital.

The Appeal Court overturned Ahmed's indefinite jail term and replaced it with a hospital order so that his release date will be fixed by clinicians rather than the Parole Board.

Sitting with Mr Justice Field and Judge Paul Batty QC, Lord Justice Elias went on: "We think that, in light of the circumstances, we do not feel it appropriate to impose a prison sentence as a form of punishment.

"Even less would it be appropriate to impose imprisonment for public protection, when it seems to us that, given the incident was caused by his mental disorder, there is no justification for detaining him once the medical authorities determine he can be released.

"This is a decision which, in our view, should be left to the medical authorities, rather than the Parole Board."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We work closely with health professionals and the UK Border Agency to secure the removal of dangerous foreign national offenders who have mental disorders.

“Where removal is not currently an option, we hold them securely to ensure the public are protected.

“When they no longer need treatment in hospital, they are referred to UKBA for removal.”

9-Year-Old British Boy Bullied to Death by 'Asian Yobs'...

Aaron Dugmore – thought to be one of the youngest children in the UK to commit suicide – was discovered in his bedroom after being tormented for months, his parents said.

They said Aaron was threatened with a plastic knife by one Asian pupil, who warned him: ‘Next time it will be a real one.’

He was also allegedly told by another pupil that ‘all the white people should be dead’ and he was forced to hide from the bullies in the playground at lunchtime.

Aaron’s mother, Kelly-Marie Dugmore, 30, and stepfather Paul Jones, 43, said that despite complaints to the school, nothing was done to stop the bullying.

Aaron had recently started in Year Five at Erdington Hall Primary School in Birmingham, a school where 75 per cent of pupils come from ethnic minority backgrounds.

According to staff at the school he had already ‘settled in quickly’ with his classmates after he joined the school last September when his family moved nearby.

The school, which caters for 450 pupils aged three to 11, received an ‘inadequate’ rating by Ofsted inspectors last year.

'It's better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all': The message written by Aaron Dugmore's mother Kelly on her Facebook page

Aaron was discovered by Miss Dugmore hanged in his bedroom at the family home in the Erdington district of Birmingham at about 6pm on February 11.

He was taken to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where doctors desperately attempted to revive him but he died the  following day from a suspected cardiac arrest.

'Gone but not forgotten': Friends and family paid tribute to the young schoolboy

His mother said she was convinced the taunts led to her son killing himself.

‘Aaron got on with all the children at his last school, and for him to have been bullied because of the colour of his skin makes me feel sick to my stomach,’ she said.

Mr Jones said that from Aaron’s first day of joining the school he had noticed a change in him.

‘He became argumentative with his brothers and sisters, which wasn’t like him at all,’ he added.

‘Eventually he told us that he was being bullied by a group of Asian children at school and had to hide from them in the playground at lunchtime.’

His mother claimed she went to see the head teacher of the school several times only to be told: ‘You didn’t have to come to this school, you chose to come here.’ 

A neighbour of the boy’s grandmother  earlier told how ‘he had been targeted by a gang of older bullies at the school’.

She said: ‘They made fun of him because he was the new kid but no one really thought it was any more than playground stuff.’

An inquest was opened at Birmingham Coroner’s Court last week but was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Detective Inspector David Wallbank, of West Midlands Police, confirmed that the force was investigating allegations that Aaron was being bullied in the run-up to his death.

Court bans protests outside taxpayer-funded luxury home of Muslim terrorist Abu Qatada

The family of radical preacher Abu Qatada has won an injunction preventing protesters from demonstrating outside their home.

His wife and five children were granted an 'anti-harassment' order by a High Court judge in London.

Mr Justice Silber also granted them an injunction against various protest groups preventing them misusing private information about the family - such as their names and address. 

The judge stressed that his decision did not prevent organisations from protesting against Qatada, provided demonstrations take place more than 500 metres from the London house where they are living.

The judge pointed out that Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, was not a party to the proceedings.

He emphasised that the case was not concerned with whether 'Omar Othman should still be in this country or whether he should be in prison in this country'.

Judge Silber also said he was not concerned with whether he or his family 'should be provided with a house financed by the United Kingdom taxpayers'.

It was accepted 'that it is perfectly legitimate' for there to be protests about his presence in the country and about the house provided to his family.

The injunctions granted today continued earlier orders made by another High Court judge earlier this month.

The court action for injunctions was brought against a number of groups, including English National Resistance, Britain First and the English Defence League, as well as against 'persons unknown who are intending to assemble outside the home' of the claimants.

He said evidence showed that the claimants, including two children under the age of 16, 'have suffered extreme distress and upset by the actions of demonstrators outside their home'.

He added that such protests directly outside had 'terrified' the family, particularly the younger children.

The judge said he accepted the evidence presented on their behalf that, while demonstrations were taking place, they were 'effectively prisoners in their own home'.

Justice Silber added that defendants aimed 'to cause as much misery, not only to Omar Othman, but also to his family'.

He added there was 'powerful evidence' from the claimants of weekly demonstrations 'with much shouting of abuse' such as 'Abu Qatada off our streets', 'All Muslims are terrorists' and 'Just murder him' - with chanting and shouting lasting for up to six hours.

In opposing the injunctions, the defendants argued that the orders would interfere with their rights under the European Convention on Human rights - in relation to freedom of thought, expression, and of assembly and association.

Rejecting their case, the judge pointed out that each of those rights 'is qualified in the sense that they do not apply in certain circumstances such as where they interfere with the rights of others'.

As well as the 'anti-harassment' order, he granted a second injunction restraining the defendants from communicating or disclosing personal matters relating to the wife and children, such as their address, names, names of schools, and also images of them.

Their case was that if the defendants were allowed to communicate such information it was likely to result in further harassment.

A previous court order already prohibited the release of Qatada’s address into the public domain.

Last year, Siac judges ruled that evidence from Qatada’s former co-defendants, Abu Hawsher and Al-Hamasher, said to have been obtained by torture, could be used against him in a retrial.

They said: 'The Secretary of State has not satisfied us that, on a retrial, there is no real risk that the impugned statements of Abu Hawsher and Al-Hamasher would be admitted probatively against the appellant.'

Mrs May immediately pledged to appeal and told the Commons that Jordan had given assurances about its legal processes.

She described Qatada as 'a dangerous man, a suspected terrorist, who is accused of serious crime in his home country of Jordan'.

Qatada was granted bail following the ruling and released from HMP Long Lartin. Mrs May’s appeal against a decision to allow Qatada to stay in the UK is due to be heard on March 11.

He has fought deportation to Jordan - where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999 - for more than a decade.

Somali armed robber who claimed asylum sues Government for £50,000 because attempts to deport him gave him 'nightmares'

A criminal asylum seeker is suing the Government for £50,000 claiming their persistent attempts to deport him from Britain has left him unable to sleep and psychologically scarred.

Abdirahman Ajab, who has a string of previous convictions, says his treatment has given him 'mental problems' and 'nightmares' so the Home Office 'owe' him.

The 30-year-old Somalian has been convicted of robbery and false imprisonment but still convinced a High Court judge to let him stay in the UK several years ago.

He now says that being held at an immigration centre for eight months while the Government considered his case gave him mental health problems.

He was later sent to prison after an armed robbery but still managed to block another deportation attempt and was handed a taxpayer-funded flat in Tower Hamlets, east London.

Ajab has been in Britain since 1996 when he arrived as a 13-year-old asylum seeker from east Africa.

He has said that if he wins the £50,000 compensation case he would use it to buy land in Somalia, adding that he would like to go back home but the UK government is stopping him.

'The Government have been doing me bad for years. It's given me mental problems. It's given me nightmares. They owe me man,' he told The Sun.

The Home Office, who are dealing with the case, told MailOnline they would not comment on individual cases.

But speaking about his claim that he is being stopped from leaving Britain a source said: 'He's more than welcome to leave.'

Woman scarred for life when niqab-wearing attacker throws acid in her face

A young woman suffered horrific facial burns after a woman wearing a Muslim veil threw acid in her face.

Naomi Oni, 20, was walking home after finishing work at lingerie shop Victoria’s Secret when the woman, wearing a niqab – which reveals only the eyes – appeared and launched the apparently random attack.

It is not known whether the attack was motivated by the victim’s work for the store.

Initially, doctors feared the shop assistant had been blinded. But after a month’s treatment in a specialist burns unit, Miss Oni has recovered sight in her left eye and partial vision in her right.

Miss Oni has only recently been discharged from hospital but has decided to speak out to help police catch her attacker.

She said: ‘I look in the mirror and it just isn’t me. I’ll never look the same again.

‘I’ve always been outgoing and confident – used to getting attention for the way I dress or my hair – but now I don’t want anyone looking at me.

‘I don’t want people to see me in public. I don’t want to get the Tube or the bus. If I have to go to the hospital I take a taxi.

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to my job.

‘I was planning to go to college in September to study media and fashion, but I don’t even know if I’ll be able to do that.’

On December 30, Miss Oni took the bus home to Dagenham, East London after finishing a late shift at Victoria’s Secret in the Westfield shopping centre in nearby Stratford.

It was around 12.40am, and she was just five minutes from the council flat she shares with her disabled mother, when she saw the woman and felt a ‘splash’ on her face. She said: ‘It burned and I screamed out.

‘I started running and screaming, holding my face, all the way home. I didn’t look back. I was hysterical. Luckily my godmother, who is a pharmacist, was at home with my mum and she helped me and kept dipping my face in water and trying to calm me down until the police and ambulance got there.’

Miss Oni has no idea why anyone would attack her.

She faces months, if not years, of skin grafts and further plastic surgery and even then is likely to be left with severe facial scarring.

Miss Oni is the sole carer for her 52-year-old mother. They are too afraid to go back to their flat and are currently sleeping on a friend’s sofa-bed.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said acid attacks were ‘extremely rare’ and that detectives were keeping an ‘open mind’.

Gang Made 11-Year-Old British Girl into Sex Slave...

A girl has told the Old Bailey how she was seduced and turned into a sex slave by an older man at the age of 11.

The witness, now 19, was giving evidence at the trial of nine men accused of grooming children and exploiting them for sex in Oxford.

She said she was raped by Mohammed Karrar in 2005 when she was 11. She had gone to a flat "to chill" and said she was given drink and drugs, then raped.

The men deny 51 charges including rape and trafficking from 2004 to 2012.

In court the witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she fell in love with Mr Karrar and thought they were in a relationship.

'No choice'

"At the time I thought it was my choice and it was fine, but years on I can see I never had a choice," she said.

"He told me he loved me. He said he would take me to Saudi Arabia when I was 15 and marry me.

"I believed him at the time."

She said she was also introduced to other men and told to perform sex acts on them.

The witness is one of six alleged victims in the case and, like one of the others, she claimed she was forced to have an illegal abortion in a back-room in Reading.

The trial is expected to last until April. The defendants are all in custody.

The defendants are:

• Kamar Jamil, 27, formerly of Aldrich Road, Oxford
• Akhtar Dogar, 32, of Tawney Street, Oxford; and his brother Anjum Dogar, 30, of Tawney Street, Oxford
• Assad Hussain, 32, of Ashurst Way, Oxford
• Mohammed Karrar, 38, of Kames Close, Oxford; and his brother Bassam Karrar, 33, of Hundred Acres Close, Oxford
• Mohammed Hussain, 24, of Horspath Road, Oxford
• Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, of Palmer Road, Oxford
• Bilal Ahmed, 26, of Suffolk Road, Maidenhead

'He branded me so people knew I was his': Sex slave aged 11 describes how 'trafficker disfigured her flesh with heated hairpin'

• Nine men are accused of grooming and abusing vulnerable girls in Oxford
• Child sex ring allegedly abused several girls - aged 11 to 16 over eight years
• Gang member allegedly branded one schoolgirl with 'M' for Mohammed

A young girl has told a court how her sex attacker branded her with his initial.

The child was just 11 when Mohammed Karrar, 38, allegedly bought her and loaned her to abusers all around the country for £600 a year.

She told a court yesterday about being mutilated by a hairpin, saying: 'After heating it up for a little while, he stuck it on my bum.

'It was M for Mo and he said I belonged to him. He was branding me so people knew I was his.'

In the dock: Kamar Jamil, Akhtar Dogar, Anjum Dogar, Assad Hussain, Mohammed Karrar, Bassam Karrar, Mohammed Hussain, Zeeshan Ahmed and Bilal Ahmed are accused of abusing vulnerable girls as young as 11 over the course of eight years in Oxford. They all deny the charges

Over five years the girl, now 19, was repeatedly raped by large groups of men in what she described as ‘torture sex’, the jury was told last month.

Seven men of Pakistani origin and two from North Africa are accused of 79 offences against six vulnerable white British girls.

 The charges include child rape, sexual trafficking and child prostitution.

Noel Lucas QC, prosecuting, said Karrar – known as Egyptian Mo – bought the youngest victim from an unnamed man just after her 11th birthday.

He befriended her with gifts of perfume and hard drugs but then began to beat her up and raped her, the Old Bailey was told.

He branded her with one of her hair pins, which he had twisted into the shape of an ‘M’ and heated with a cigarette lighter. It left a scar on her left buttock.

‘He regarded her as his property,’ Mr Lucas said. ‘He showed her no regard. If she had the temerity to resist, he beat her.

‘He branded her to make her his property and to ensure others knew about it.’ At the age of 12 she was introduced to Karrar’s brother Bassam, 33, who is also accused of raping her.

The girl ‘describes the Karrars as sick sex monsters’, Mr Lucas said. ‘They were always talking about sex and spoke about women in a vile manner.

‘Mohammed Karrar liked her to dress up and act out role play. Both brothers used to beat her.’

From the age of 12 the girl was sold to groups of Asian men who violently raped her in private homes and guesthouses around Oxford and elsewhere.

 Sometimes she was injected with heroin or given date drugs to ensure she complied with the gang’s sick demands, it was alleged.

Mr Lucas added: ‘It became routine for her to be taken to various locations, houses and hotels by the Karrar brothers so she could treat their guests. 

She would be made to dress up, wear very short skirts and a bikini top, do her hair and put on lots of make-up.

By the end of the evening she would have been sexually used and abused by all the men. She would be so drugged up as to be unable to feel the pain.’

Just after her 12th birthday the girl told Karrar she was carrying his child.

 He allegedly beat her up and then took her to a house in Reading where she was given a ‘backroom abortion’ using a crochet hook.

On other occasions Karrar raped the girl in the living room of her own home as her father slept in another room, it was said.

Sometimes his friends would arrive at her house and they would allegedly rape her too. The girl, who came from a troubled family, naively believed ‘Mo’ loved her and was going to marry her when she was 16, the court heard.

During a trip to the Lake District in 2007, when she was 14, she is said to have been called by Karrar on her mobile phone.

David Hughes, a social worker, answered and Karrar allegedly asked to speak to her.

When Mr Hughes refused, Karrar allegedly said: ‘If you don’t get her I’ll **** you up, I’ll **** her up and I’ll **** her mum.’ Later the girl told the social worker of  ‘men who took her to houses’.

In January 2008, she told police a man called ‘Egyptian Mo’ had raped her in London nine months previously. 

Two years later the girl contacted her alleged attacker for an apology but was raped again, the court heard.

Kamar Jamil, 27, Akhtar Dogar, 32, his brother Anjum Dogar, 30, Assad Hussain, 32, Mohammed Karrar, Bassam 

Karrar, Mohammed Hussain, 24, Zeeshan Ahmed, 27, and Bilal Ahmed, 26, deny all the charges against them.

The trial continues.

Millionaire businessman Islamic creed 'as obtrusive as McDonald's sign' can stay on his house after winning fight with council

• There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger,' sign reads
• Planners banned slogan saying it was like a McDonald's billboard
• 
  
• But Mahmood Ali, 54, wins right to keep sign after ruling is overturned
• 'I wouldn't mind if my neighbours painted a cross on their house,' he says

A millionaire businessman today won his fight to keep a large Islamic slogan which he painted on the side of his house.

Mahmood Ali had been ordered to remove the words because they were a form of advertising comparable to a McDonald's billboard.

But he appealed the ruling, and successfully argued that the slogan was not disproportionately large or garish and did not damage the character of his neighbourhood.

'Breaches planning laws': Millionaire businessman Mahmood Ali has won a court battle over this Islamic slogan on his house in Newport, South Wales, after the council ordered it be removed because it is 'advertising'

The 54-year-old painted an Arabic message meaning, 'There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger,' on the side of his semi-detached eight-bedroom home in Newport, south Wales.

The council later ruled that he required planning permission to display the slogan, saying that it fell under the same category as a commercial advertisement.

Today planning inspector Tim Belcher overturned that initial ruling, judging that the sign was not so obtrusive that it damaged the interests of other locals.

Mr Ali spoke of his joy at the decision, saying that it set a positive precedent for others who wished to express their faith publicly.

'It’s a good way forward so people can feel comfortable living in the UK,' he said.

'If a neighbour wanted to put a George cross on their house I wouldn’t have any objection whatsoever. I would respect it fully.'

'Obtrusive': The message, in 2ft-high lettering, is written across a first-floor archway on the detached house

PHRASE DECLARES BELIEF IN ONENESS OF GOD

The message on the side of Mahmood Ali's house comes from the Islamic creed, known as shahada, which declares the belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Muhammad as his prophet. 

In English, this translates as: 'There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God'

A single, honest recitation of the shahadah in Arabic is all that is required for a person to become a Muslim. 

This declaration, or statement of faith, is called the kalimah.

In some sects in Shia Islam, the creed is expanded with the addition of a phrase concerning Ali at the end to say: 'and Ali is the wali (friend) of God'.

Taking this creed is one of the five pillars of Islam.

The complete shahadah cannot be found in the Quran, but comes from hadiths, sayings or  or tacit approvals ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

He added: 'It is not there as an advertisement, the sign was just to bless the house, that’s the purpose.

'The green colour means peace. This sort of thing is common in cities like Birmingham and Manchester.'

Mr Ali had the sign placed onto the side of his £750,000 home in Newport.

But the city's council later decided he didn't have the right planning permission to display the message across the home's stone archway.

The sign, which is around two metres wide and 60cm high, includes the declaration of the Islamic faith, called the Islamic creed.

Business consultant Mr Ali has also applied for permission to illuminate the sign in low voltage lighting.

A family member, who did not wish to be named, added: 'It's our home and we should be free to do whatever we want.

'We're suppose to have freedom of speech in this country and be allowed to express our faith however we please.'

Mr Ali applied for retrospective permission, but it was turned down.

Newport Council argued that the sign is an obtrusive 'advertisement' according to planning regulations.

Under these guidelines, an advertisement includes any word, letter, model, sign, placard, board or notice used for advertising, making an announcement or direction.

A council statement read: 'The property is domestic property and is not a mosque where such signs might be expected.

'The sign consists of letters and words that announce religious faith and so can be considered to be an advertisement and express planning consent is required.

'The advertisement is prominently sited upon the host building and is also prominent. Its size and position on the building make it obtrusive.'

600,000 move out in decade of 'white flight' from London: White Britons are now in minority in the capital

• Census figures show that 620,000 white Britons left the capital in a decade
• White Britons are the minority in London for the first time
• 
  
• They make up 45 per cent of London's population, with Asians being the second largest group

More than 600,000 white British Londoners have left the capital in a decade.

Census figures show that between 2001 and 2011 the level of ‘white flight’ reached 620,000.

It is the equivalent of a city the size of Glasgow – made up entirely of white Britons – moving out of the capital. 

White Britons are now a minority in the country's capital with 620,000 leaving in a decade

The figures, reported by the BBC yesterday, mean that for the first time, white Britons are now in a minority in the country’s largest city.

At the same time, the census shows, some rural areas have seen a rise in the proportion of people who describe their ethnicity as ‘white British’.

Some 3.7million Londoners classified themselves as white British in 2011 – down from 4.3million in 2001 – despite the city’s population increasing by nearly one million over the decade to 8.2million.

Sir Andrew Green of MigrationWatch thinks that the BBC should have addressed such a serious issue less trivially

White Britons now make up 45 per cent of the population, compared with 58 per cent in 2001.

London’s population has been boosted by immigrants. Three million foreign-born people now live in the capital. 

Five London boroughs saw the proportion of white Britons fall by more than a quarter. The largest decline was in Newham, East London, where the decrease was 37.5 per cent.

In Barking and Dagenham, on the East London/Essex border, 80 per cent of residents were white British in 2001 but by 2011 the proportion was 49 per cent.

There were also big falls in Redbridge, Harrow, Brent, Enfield, Ealing and Waltham Forest. The BBC website was criticised by readers for its depiction of the change as a ‘story of success’ in which many white Britons had moved out to live by the sea or in the countryside.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the MigrationWatch think-tank, said: ‘The BBC make a very serious mistake in addressing an issue of such importance to the British public in such a trivial and superficial manner.

‘It’s surely obvious that the main reason for white flight is because people are not willing to live in an environment which has changed beyond recognition and against their own wishes.’

Ralph Baldwin, a Tory councillor in Barking and Dagenham, said: ‘I think people left for a variety of reasons.

‘If you look back to the early 2000s many people were able to retire to Clacton-on-Sea and they saw their friends going and followed.

‘But people also watched all this demographic change going on between 2000 and 2010 and they thought, “We don’t know where we are living any more”.

‘One day they are in a place that they think is Essex and then they are living in another place.
‘It has never been an issue of race. It’s about the inability of people to affect change. The world was changing around them and they couldn’t do anything about it.’

Behind white Britons, the largest ethnic group in London is now Asians – including those born here and those arriving from overseas – who make up 18 per cent of the population. 

Black Londoners – including Africans, black Britons and those from the Caribbean – make up 13 per cent.

The census shows the proportion of white Britons in South Derbyshire went up by 13.7 per cent over the decade.

Other rural boroughs that saw big increases included North Kesteven and West Lindsey in Lincolnshire, Uttlesford in Essex, East Northamptonshire, East Cambridgeshire, Mid Suffolk, South Norfolk, Mid Devon and Forest Heath in Suffolk.

The census shows the population of England and Wales was swollen by nearly four million immigrants in a decade of sweeping social change.

In 2011 there were 7.5million people who were born abroad living here, of whom more than half had arrived since 2001.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281941/600-000-decade-white-flight-London-White-Britons-minority-capital.html#ixzz2LZ5qiyHs
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Three young British Muslims found guilty of plotting 'another 7/7' with team of eight suicide bombers, rucksacks packed with explosives and training trips to Pakistan - all funded by charity donations

• Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, wanted 'rival for 9/11'
• Ringleaders spent years travelling to Pakistan for 'terror training'
• Al-Qaeda backed group made videos to play after they blew themselves up
• The terror cell raised funds by posing as bogus charity workers
• Plotted 'spectacular campaign' from dirty Birmingham headquarters
• Police discovered explosives in Midlands when plan was at advanced stage

By MARTIN ROBINSON

PUBLISHED: 13:06, 21 February 2013 | UPDATED: 15:36, 21 February 2013

• Comments (587)
• Share

Three British Muslims have been found guilty of planning a terrorist attack to rival 9/11 or the 7/7 Tube bombings by packing eight rucksacks with explosives to cause mass casualties in the UK.

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, all from Birmingham, were today convicted of plotting the 'spectacular campaign' designed to claim as many lives as the 2005 London Underground bombs that killed 52 innocent people.

Inspired by hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, the trio were 'central figures' in an al-Qaeda backed extremist plot to set off bombs and other deadly weapons in crowded areas across Britain.

But the three, who called themselves the Four Lions after the black comedy film, only failed because of their own bungling.

The group had set up a sophisticated fraud by pretending to be Muslim Aid charity street collectors, duping legitimate supporters and at least one mosque into giving them thousands of pounts.

However, they lost £9,000 by making catastrophic investments and then failed to destroy evidence of their plotting that police then found in their Midlands safe house. 

Judge Justice Henriques said: 'You were seeking to recruit a team of suicide bombers to carry out a spectacular bombing campaign, one which would create an anniversary along the lines of 7/7 or 9/11'.

The bomb plotters had the means, the will and the know-how to carry out mass murder in the biggest terror attack on the British mainland 'in a generation', detectives said.

Six other men have already admitted or been found guilty of being part of the terror cell, it can also be revealed today.

Scroll down for video

Guilty: (left to right) Irfan Khalid, Irfan Naseer and Ashik Ali, all from Birmingham, were today convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of being 'central figures' in a giant terrorist bomb plot

Plot: Irfan Khalid and Irfan Naseer arrive at Birmingham airport before heading to Pakistan for terrorist training

Training camps: Khalid and Naseer were caught on CCTV going back and forth to Pakistan to receive instruction on plotting their attack on Britain

Collecting for terror: Irfan Naseer left and Irfan Khalid holding bucket undertake bogus charity collections in Birmingham to secretly raise funds for their bombing campaign

Charity funded terror: The men posed as fundraisers for a Muslim charity (left) then used the cash to pay for bomb devices such as this alarm clock (right)

The men were being watched by MI5 and police, who had bugged their car.

In surveillance recordings, Naseer was heard talking about the possibility of mixing poison into creams such as Vaseline or Nivea and smearing them on car handles to cause mass deaths.

The trio even pondered welding blades to a truck and driving it into people.

While driving the men were heard comparing themselves to Formula One drivers.

Prosecutor Brian Altman said: 'They pretended they were going really fast taking over cars, saying there were no cars in front or behind them.

'They had just taken over Jenson Button and Nigel Mansell where is he?

'Then Khalid says: 'It's the four suicide bombers driving around ready to take on England. Oh my God take them out.'

Police believe it was the most significant terror plot to be uncovered since the 2006 conspiracy to blow up transatlantic airliners using bombs disguised as soft drinks.

Khalid even boasted that the attack was 'another 9/11' as 'revenge for everything'.

Naseer was found guilty of five counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, Khalid four, and Ali three, all between Christmas Day 2010 and September 19 2011.

For Naseer, from Sparkhill, Khalid, from Sparkbrook, and Ali, from Balsall Heath, this included planning a bombing campaign, collecting money for terrorism and recruiting others for terrorism.

Naseer and Khalid also travelled to Pakistan for training, and Naseer helped others travel to the country for the same purpose.

Plotters: (top left to bottom right) Ishaaq Hussain, Rahin Ahmed, Naweed Ali, Mujahid Hussain, Khobaib Hussain, and Ishaaq Hussain have been implicated in the biggest attack planned on British soil 'for a generation'

Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told the jury: 'The police successfully disrupted a plan to commit an act or acts of terrorism on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005, had it been allowed to run its course.

THE MEN BEHIND A PLOT THAT COULD HAVE BEEN 'ANOTHER 7/7'

The three principal drivers behind the plot were men who initially sounded an unlikely trio to carry out such an atrocity.

Irfan Naseer, 31, was an overweight, unemployed pharmacy graduate - with the nicknames Chubbs and Big Irfan - who according to his own mother was 'a mummy's boy'.

The father of Irfan Khalid, 27, said a medical condition would have made it unlikely he could have taken any practical part in carrying out the attack, while Ashik Ali, 29, was registered partially sighted.

There were calamitous moments as they worked on their murderous plot. 

They tried to raise money through bogus charity collections but ended up losing thousands playing foreign currency markets and had to apply for loans.

And a note setting out the requirements for their homemade explosives was supposed to have been burned in a pan, but the process produced so much smoke it was never properly destroyed.

Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Adam Gough said the men were 'the real deal' and, if successful in detonating their devices, would have perpetrated 'another 9/11 or another 7/7 in the UK'.

It was Naseer's training in chemistry - and later training at a Pakistani terror camp - which gave him the know-how to draw up a blueprint of a viable improvised explosive device.

No precise targets were discussed by the three men but Mr Gough said the attack would have involved 'eight exploding rucksacks in crowded places', while Ali hinted in a police interview that 'soldiers' might have been the target - while later claiming he made this up.

It is also unclear when the attack was planned, although the group made references to 'five months, a year, and two years', Mr Gough said.

'The defendants were proposing to detonate up to eight rucksack bombs in a suicide attack and/or to detonate bombs on timers in crowded areas in order to cause mass deaths and casualties.'

Naseer and Khalid both travelled to terrorist training camps in Pakistan between 2009 and 2011 to learn about bomb-making, poisons and firearms.

They raised £12,000 for themselves in this way, but were forced to apply for tens of thousands of pounds in loans after losing more than £9,000 of the money playing foreign currency markets.

In a reference to the black comedy film, Ali also told his estranged wife Salma Kabal: 'Oh, you think this is a flipping Four Lions. We're one man short.'

Mr Justice Henriques told the trio that they will all face life in prison when they are sentenced in April or May.

Speaking to Naseer, he said he had been convicted on 'overwhelming evidence' and that he will face 'a very long minimum term'.

The judge said: 'You are a highly skilled bomb maker and explosives expert. Your mindset was similarly manifest.

'You sought to persuade others that a terror plot here in this country was by far preferable to fighting jihad abroad.

'It's clear that you were planning a terrorist outrage in Birmingham.'

In April 2011, the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit began investigating the men.

The investigation, known as Operation Examine/Pitsford, grew to be the 450-strong counter-terror unit's largest ever, resulting in 12 arrests and smashing one of the most serious terror bomb plots of recent years.

Police evidence-gathering involved 24-hour surveillance and the bugging of the men's safe house, where detectives recorded many conversations between the men as they plotted their attacks.

Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Adam Gough said: 'From covert recordings from the address at 23 White Street, the group had talked of their need to keep the operation a secret.

'They put up black curtains at the house, and they made reference to their concerns they might be under surveillance.

'We could hear them - and we heard them discussing the 'martyr' (July 7 bomber) Mohammed Sidique Khan, and they discussed how much chemicals they would need.

'Naseer referred to "seven or eight in different places - boom, boom, boom".'

Probe: Police raided properties all over Birmingham, including this safe house, which was full of bomb-making equipment and documents detailing how to make them

Safe house: The trio were based at this property in White Street, Birmingham, and used as the headquarters for their terror cell

Explosive: Police uncovered a variety of powders and liquids, including this 'cold pack' in the dingy house

Destroying the evidence: Police found this burnt note that detailed the bomb-making process

Bomb-making equipment: Police discovered a variety of ordinary domestic equipment including granules to keep material cold (left) and a pharmaceutical syringe (right) 

By September 16 2011, the three men were 'experimenting with chemicals and home-made explosive', said Mr Gough, and the police acted.

There was a fear that they might try to test a device, putting members of the public at risk.

Late on the night of September 18, officers swooped on the men's car when it drove along a suburban street as they were heading out to get takeaway food.

All three were arrested, and in the next two hours 14 warrants were carried out on addresses across Birmingham.

Among the addresses raided was the group's safe house, where further evidence of the men's attempts to make a bomb was recovered, including a sports injury cool pack which Naseer had mistakenly believed would contain ammonium nitrate - a key bomb-making ingredient.

A partially-burned note written by Naseer detailing how to make what an expert witness said during the trial would have made a viable bomb was also recovered.

Mr Gough said: 'Naseer had told Ali to burn the note but it wasn't done properly, and Naseer later admitted he had written it.'

The note detailed the chemicals, the amounts and mixtures of how to make explosives, although they never got as far as creating a bomb and carrying out their threats.

In one chilling warning, Naseer was covertly recorded saying of the UK: 'The only thing you will achieve is suicide bombers on your streets, spilling so much blood you'll have nightmares for the rest of your life.'

Fundraising: Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali held table top sales in Birmingham where the cash raised would be secretly siphoned off to pay for trips to Pakistan

Surveillance: MI5 had been watching the terror group and had planted a bug in their Hinda Civic where they were heard boasting about the atrocity they planned

Shopping: Ashik Ali was watched buying curtains from Argos as part the sophisticated spying operation by the British secret services

The men had been under MI5 surveillance, and the bugged recordings painted a picture of incompetence as they plotted their attacks.

Mixing in street slang with jihadi rhetoric, they justify their plot by saying Westerners deserve to be 'terrorised'.

Naseer says: 'They wanna have sex like donkeys on the street, they wanna club, act like animals and why shouldn't we terrorise them, tell me that?

'You think about it, if someone came in your house, yeah, and started dancing and throughout the night and started basically having orgies and smoking drugs and stuff...you would terrorise them, innit.'

Naseer later anticipates killing 2,000 people in nailbomb attacks, outlining his plan as: 'Boom, boom, boom everywhere...kill.'

Late night: Officers pulled the terrorists over as they drove to a takeaway just before midnight

Prosecution: Ashik Ali was taken from the car and is detained along with the two other men who were all found guilty of terrorism offences at Woolwich Crown Court today

Capture: West Midlands Police arrested the three men in Birmingham after intercepting them in their VW as they drove through the city in September 2011

The plot hit a snag when, Rahin Ahmed, the cell's chief fundraiser, who admitted the charges, lost more than £9,000 of the group's cash they raised in a bad investments on the money market.

His fellow jihadists ordered him to sell his Honda Civic to make up the loss.

Rather than sell his car, he turned to payday loan firm Yes Loans to make up the missing cash, but was left empty-handed when the firm ruled he did not meet their criteria.

They then suggested setting up stalls around the country selling cakes and perfume and do door-to-door collections to raise cash.

They also applied for bank loans worth £33,000 from two different branches of Barclay's on the same day but were again unsuccessful.

On another occasion they decided to make a bomb out of a cold pack used for sports injuries, believing it contained ammonium nitrate.

They rowed over who should buy the pack - with Naseer, nicknamed Chubbs, refusing as he was too fat to be a believable athlete.

Ali went in his place but in the end there was no ammonium nitrate in the pack they brought.

When they did get round to making a bomb, Ali managed to spill chemicals on his hands, saying 'I've done my fingers man, is it dangerous if you get it on your fingers? It's like acid, innit?'

Naseer, drawing from his experience at terror camp, replies: 'Yeah, it's painful man. You won't die, it'll make you ill a bit'.

Realising the trail of evidence, the men attempt to destroy their paperwork.

But, said Mr Altman, they 'did not make a very good job of it' as police found it largely intact in a rubbish bin in Ali's kitchen.

Eleven men and one woman have been charged over the alleged plot. Some have since pleaded guilty while others await trial.

VIDEO: CCTV OF THE MOMENT PLOT RINGLEADERS ARE ARRESTED

 

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CONSPIRACY : WHY DID NO ONE IN PLOTTERS’ COMMUNITY TIP OFF POLICE? 

Nobody in the bomb plotters' own community tipped the police off with their concerns, despite finding out they were sending young men to terror training camps in Pakistan.

At no point during the 18-month investigation by the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit did anyone in Birmingham's Muslim community inform on the behaviour of Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid (together right) and Ashik Ali, raising questions over the health of relations between officers and community leaders.

This was despite the fact the families of four other young men recruited from Sparkhill all intervened to bring them back home the moment they found out the real reasons for them travelling to Pakistan.

Detective Inspector Adam Gough, senior investigating officer, said the extended families of the four men had 'become aware' of why they went to Pakistan but, in any case, 'did not tell us'.

Ishaaq Hussain, Shahid Khan, Khobaib Hussain and Naweed Ali were told to tell loved ones they were studying at madrassas if asked.

Police and security services were aware the four were travelling but decided against stopping them to preserve the surveillance operation (below) and because evidence-gathering was in the early stages.

According to detectives, none of the men received any terror training as they left the camps after a day.

Mr Gough said: 'We know pressure was applied to them to come back.

'Shahid Khan virtually ran home. Three of the four came back almost immediately, while the fourth stayed with his family in Pakistan.

'We know that they did reach a training camp.

'But it is a success story in that the families did bring those people back and it shows the vast majority of the community abhor terrorism in the same way we do.'

Community engagement - under what the police call the Prevent programme - is supposed to form a cornerstone of the UK counter-terrorism policing strategy.

Prevent aims to respond 'to the ideological challenge of terrorism' by 'developing partnerships' with communities, thereby preventing people being 'drawn into terrorism'.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who is responsible for counter-terrorism at West Midlands Police, said: 'The families were trying to do their best to get them back and stop them getting into trouble, rather than get in touch with us.

'I agree it would have been really good if more could have been shared with us, and we could have dealt with it in a different way.

'In terms of community engagement, would I like them to come forward more? Yes, I would.

'Do I think they (the Muslim community) were being disruptive - no, I do not.'

Mr Beale also said he believed the two local charitable organisations on whose behalf the three men had masqueraded to raise money "were duped, rather than being complicit'.

He added: 'We want to help make sure they (the charities) are not quite so easily duped in the future.'

Some of that money scammed from charities was actually gambled away by another member of the group, Rahin Ahmed, who was given the task of playing the financial markets to try to increase the group's cash reserves.

He previously admitted engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terror, encouraging acts of terror, collecting money for terrorism and assisting other to travel for training in terrorism.

On one occasion, Ahmed - an unemployed law graduate who was a community worker with one of the charities - lost £3,000 when he left his computer screen for five minutes to boil a kettle.

He tried to recover some of his losses, but in total lost £9,000 of the £14,500 invested.

There was talk in the group of acquiring a shop, as a front for a bomb factory at the back of the premises, but Ahmed lost too much money and the idea had to be dropped.

Mr Beale said the police do not know how much money the group collected.