Isis supporter admits calling for an attack on Prince George halfway through his trial
Terror trial halted after dramatic change of plea
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An Isis supporter has admitted calling for jihadis to attack Prince George, dramatically halting his terror trial with an unexpected change of plea.
Husnain Rashid, 32, used the Telegram messenger to encourage a terror attack on the four-year-old heir to the throne.
Rashid, of Nelson, Lancashire, previously maintained his innocence during proceedings, which began at Woolwich Crown Court last week.
But on Thursday he pleaded guilty to a string of terror offences, bringing the trial to an abrupt stop. He faces a possible life sentence.
Prosecutors had told the court Rashid was encouraging terrorism by posting a photograph of the prince alongside silhouettes of two masked jihadi fighters.
He posted the image in a Telegram group chat on 13 October, a month after George started school at Thomas’s Battersea in southwest London.
“Even the royal family will not be left alone,” Rashid wrote, before sharing the school’s full address and postcode and adding: “School starts early.”
Last week, prosecutor Annabel Darlow told the court “the underlying message was clear” that “Prince George and other members of the royal family should be viewed as targets”.
Rashid also posted suggestions of British football stadiums terrorists could strike, following the deadly attack outside the ground of Besiktas in Turkey, his trial heard.
A magazine he was producing contained suggestions to strike the 2018 World Cup in Russia with vehicles, weapons or bombs.
Rashid was arrested at his home in Leonard Street in November.
On Thursday, nearly two weeks into his trial, he was reindicted and pleaded guilty to three counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts and one count of encouraging terrorism.
The charges covered offences spanning from October 2016 to April this year.
Rashid will be sentenced on 28 June.
“It is inevitable that you will receive a very lengthy prison sentence and there will be a consideration of a life prison sentence,” judge Andrew Lees told him, describing his crime as the “most disturbing allegations”.
Rashid, who is said to have taught at the Muhammadi mosque, ran a “prolific” Telegram channel named the Lone Mujahid where he provided an “e-toolkit for terrorism”, the prosecution told his trial.
This allegedly included a recipe for the poison ricin from the Islamist propaganda magazine Inspire, instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails and napalm, and a suggestion of poisoning supermarket ice creams.
His wide-ranging list of targets included British army bases, shopping centres, Jewish communities and government buildings.
He also suggested that he planned to flee to Syria to fight for Isis.
“His proposals were indiscriminate and made no distinction between adult and child, between members of fighting forces and civilians,” Ms Darlow said. “His suggestions included injecting poison into supermarket ice creams and targeting Prince George at his first school.”
Rashid also plotted to bring down an aircraft with lasers with a British terrorist in Syria, the court heard.
Rashid also posted a photograph of the Burmese ambassador to the UK, writing: “You know what to do,” and urged others to “fight and spill the blood to the apes in your land” and “start preparing tools and weapons/explosives”.
When police swooped on his house last year, Rashid hurled a phone containing a “treasure trove” of evidence over a wall and into an alleyway.
Two charges of dissemination of a terrorist publication and one of failing to comply with a notice under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act will lie on file.