A teenager who has been jailed for planning a series of terrorist attacks across the UK was arrested while trying to fly to Somalia to join Isis.
Police arrested Italian national Muhammad Billal at Manchester Airport in November 2024.
The Old Bailey heard how the teenager’s phone contained terrorist literature and an internet search history of researching how to acquire guns such as rifles and semi-automatic weaponry.
He was charged in February 2025 with two counts of preparation of terrorist act and four counts of collecting information likely to be used by a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
Billal, now 19, has now been given a 13-and-a-half year sentence after he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.
The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, told the terrorist: “By your own account to the probation officer, you intended to kill members of the public and you hoped to be killed by police.
“You could not be sure that you would not have gone through with the attack,” she added.
He also collected a “wealth” of propaganda distributed by the Islamist organisation.
Billal told police he was just “naive and bored”, claiming he was “not a violent person” and had just been travelling to Somalia “for the sunshine”.
GBnews.com
