26 January 2006
Six years for hero soldier's would-be killer
A market stall holder who plotted to "hunt down" and kill a decorated British soldier was has been jailed for six years.
Abu Mansha, 21, was born in Britain and
obsessed with Osama bin Laden. He obtained an address for Corporal Mark Byles after the soldier led a "perilous" bayonet charge, killing up to 20 Iraqi rebels.
When his flat was searched, police found a blank-firing gun in the process of being converted to shoot live rounds and a newspaper cutting detailing the soldier's exploits.
A stash of DVDs brimming with "virulent anti-western propaganda" was also recovered, London's Southwark Crown Court heard.
While some featured bin Laden, another depicted the beheading of British hostage Ken Bigley.
Police also found a poem the defendant had written describing George Bush and Tony Blair as "dirty pigs".
Mansha, the son of a Pakistani-born travel agent, was convicted just before Christmas under the Terrorism Act of possessing information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism"
.Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006
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