'Radicalised' binman gets prison term for terrorism offences
A "deeply radicalised" council binman was jailed for five years in the UK today after converting to Islam and telling his wife who worked at a British Army base he wanted to kill soldiers.
Isis supporter Aabid Ali, 49, from Wrexham, also said the murder of Lee Rigby was justified and was found with maps of the British Houses of Parliament, looked up security arrangements at Number 10 and spoke of using a car as a jihadi weapon, Manchester Crown Court heard.
He had changed his name from Darren Glennon and converted to Islam 20 years ago, the court heard.
The council refuse collector became increasingly fixated with extremist ideology in the last two years, "almost daily" watching videos of Isis beheadings, stonings and bombings and looking up how to make explosives.
He had visited Downing Street and said he hoped to meet the "war criminal" prime minister, regarding the West and its military as legitimate targets for jihad.
He also told his wife of his desire to bomb an RAF base and attack nightclubs.
When she told police it led to heightened security at the army barracks where she worked, the court heard.
Ali told officers: "Everyone loves a bomb. I like the sound of a bang."
He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two offences of having Isis publications, bomb making manuals, useful for terrorist purposes and a further count of encouraging terrorism, all committed last autumn.
Ali, who has a shaved head and ginger goatee beard, shrugged his shoulders as he was jailed for five years and four months by the Honorary Recorder of Manchester Judge David Stockdale, who said he had shown, "no remorse, no regret, no apology".
He added: "This is extremely serious offending, you are patently fixated with extremism and terrorism and you are minded to encourage terrorism in others.
"You show no sense whatsoever of retreating from your path into radicalisation."
