Britain’s youngest terrorist was locked up for two years today after being groomed to join a jihadi plot by “fanatical extremists”.
Hammaad Munshi was just 15 when he was recruited into a worldwide conspiracy to wipe out non-Muslims, and longed to go abroad and fight.
His parents were shocked when police discovered al-Qaeda propaganda promoting “murder and destruction” on his PC and notes on martyrdom hidden under his bed.
Today his grandfather, a respected Islamic scholar, backed the sentence but warned that the same thing could happen to any family.
Their local MP said the case should act as a “wake-up call” to parents about what their children might be getting up to on the internet.
Munshi, a GCSE student, 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: “You have brought very great shame upon yourself, your family and your religion.
“I have no doubt at all that you, amongst others of similar immaturity and vulnerability, fell under the spell of fanatical extremists, and your co-defendant Aabid Khan in particular.
“They took advantage of your youthful naivety in order to indoctrinate you with pernicious and warped ideas masquerading as altruistic religious zeal.
“Were it not for Aabid Khan’s malign influence, I doubt this offence would ever have been committed.”
But the judge added: “There is no doubt that you knew what you were doing.”
Harendra de Silva QC, defending, said the schoolboy had been subjected to “grooming and manipulation” by others who were “more criminally inclined”.
He said Munshi’s relatives were “devastated” by what had happened “not least because of the shame that it has brought upon this very upstanding family”.
The trial heard Munshi was desperate to go abroad and fight and had internet discussions with Khan about how to smuggle a sword past airport security.
He was arrested, aged 16, on his way home from school, carrying ball bearings, said to be the shrapnel of choice for suicide bombers, in his pockets.
His mentor Khan, described as a “Mr Fixit” of the terrorist world, with links to a number of proscribed organisations, was arrested in June 2006 at Manchester Airport on his way back from Pakistan.
He had with him the largest “encyclopaedia” of articles promoting terrorism yet seized, including personal information and addresses of 15 members of the Royal Family, among them the Queen and the Prince of Wales.
Khan (23) of Otley Road, Undercliffe, Bradford, West Yorks, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of possessing articles for terrorism.
Muhammad (23) of Hanover Square, Manningham, Bradford, was given a 10-year sentence after being found guilty of three similar charges and one of compiling information for terror.
After last month’s verdicts, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the men “posed a very real threat to our communities”.
Munshi’s grandfather Sheikh Yakub Munshi, president of the Islamic Research Institute of Great Britain at the Markazi Mosque, Dewsbury, said he came from a law-abiding family and that they respected today’s sentence.
He added: “This case demonstrates how a young impressionable teenager can be groomed so easily through the internet to associate with those whose views run contrary to true Muslim beliefs and values.”