LONDON (Reuters) - A British supporter of Islamic State who tried to recruit over 100 children into an “army” of jihadists to carry out a wave of attacks across London was jailed for a minimum of 25 years, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Islamic State (Isis) supporter Umar Haque, 25, planned to use guns and a car packed with explosives to strike 30 high-profile targets including Big Ben, the Queen’s Guard and Westfield shopping centre. 2016-2017: Haque is heavily involved in administration and teaching at the Ripple Road mosque in Barking where he trains children for terror attacks and swears them to secrecy. At the Old Bailey this afternoon, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave sentenced Haque to life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years, branding him a “dangerous liar” who was able to convert his young followers by being “intelligent, articulate, and persuasive, with an easy smile – he is narcissistic and clearly enjoys the power he wields over others.”

But the judge told him: “You have violated the Koran and Islam by your actions, as well as the law of all civilised people. It is to be hoped that you will come to realise this one day.”

As he was dragged from the dock, Haque waggled his finger at police officers and shouted out: “Nine years, that’s all you have. He is narcissistic and clearly enjoys the power he wields over others.”

Haque also played gory Isis propaganda to pupils at the fee-paying independent Muslim school, the Lantern of Knowledge in Leyton, where he taught Islamic studies and physical education between April 2015 and January 2016, a court heard. “He tried and he did, we believe, radicalize vulnerable children from the ages of 11 to 14.”

Despite having no qualifications and being employed as an administrator, police say Haque used the guise of teaching Islamic studies to groom 110 children into becoming militants at the Lantern of Knowledge, a small private Islamic school, and at a madrassa connected to the Ripple Road Mosque in east London. After a trial at the Old Bailey, Haque was found guilty of planning terror attacks with help from the two conspirators - fundraiser Abuthaher Mamun, 19, and confidant Muhammad Abid, 27, who were convicted of helping him. "His plan was to create an army of children to assist with multiple terrorist attacks throughout London," said Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command. He added: "It was apparent he was in the early stages of this long-term attack plan at multiple sites using multiple weapons and assisted by children he had radicalised." Umar Haque, 25, attempted to raise an 'army of children' by brainwashing them with extreme ISIS videos and making them re-enact knife attacks on police during role play exercises. Umar Haque, 25, showed the children beheading videos and other violent militant propaganda, forced them to re-enact deadly attacks on the British capital and made them role-play attacking police officers. Some of the youngsters had been "almost paralysed with fear", police said, adding that Haque was a "really dangerous individual" who could have "moved at any time". The court heard he came on to the police radar in April 2016, when he was stopped from flying to Syria via Turkey to join ISIS, and was stripped of his passport. Believed to have been self-radicalised online, Haque was inspired by an attack in March last year when Khalid Masood ploughed a rented car into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a police officer in the grounds of parliament.
Old Bailey Justice Charles Haddon-Cave sentences convicted terrorist Umar Haque, who indoctrinated children he was teaching in London so that he could use them to commit attacks, to lifetime incarceration with parole eligibility only after 25 years.