Islamic terror plotters ‘talked on 
laptop in bid to keep plans quiet’

Richard Dart and Imran Mahmood tried to avoid surveillance by typing into a Word document on a laptop rather than speaking aloud, prosecutors claim.

Dart, 30, who is originally from Dorset and is the son of teachers, was trying to get advice from Mahmood about terrorist training in Pakistan.

He, Mahmood and co-defendant Jahangir Alom all admitted engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism last month.

Yesterday the sentencing process began at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC told the court: “The method employed as the police, with the help of computer experts, would subsequently discover, involved Dart and Mahmood sitting together at a computer and opening a Word document on the computer to conduct what in effect was a silent conversation.

“The document was then deleted by one or other of the defendants, without having been saved and as far as the defendants were concerned the document would therefore be destroyed forever.

“They plainly were under the misapprehension that the text once deleted could never be recovered.”

The tactic suggested that they were aware they might be under surveillance, the court heard. Mr Laidlaw added: “It is obvious, suggest the prosecution, from the covert method of communication employed that they were surveillance conscious and had received anti-surveillance instruction or training.”

In the conversations, Dart asked Mahmood about getting contacts with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistan Taliban, which was banned in the UK in 2011.

The pair discussed how to make explosives, and Mahmood made reference to military tribute town Wootton Bassett as a potential target.

He went on: “They’re all combatant so if it comes down to it, it’s that or even just to deal with a few MI5, MI6 heads”.

He also said: “The real war is here, not over there.”

Dart, of Ealing, west London; Mahmood, 22, from Northolt, west London, and Alom, 26, of Stratford, east London, were all Islamic extremists “committed” to terrorism, Mr Laidlaw said.

Alom had his own contact with a fourth man, Mohammed Tariq Nasar, a Briton living in Pakistan, to try to get terrorist training, it is claimed.

Prosecutors say all three defendants travelled to Pakistan for training, although Dart and Alom were unsuccessful in that aim.

Mahmood asked Dart to try to get a specific book detailing how to make explosives, the court heard.

In an apparent reference to travelling to Pakistan with Alom, Dart said: “Bro I’m going with wanted to do something here but I said let’s abroad, can you try them out in the mountains in Wales because you don’t want to go to all that effort and it doesn’t work out.”

The fragments of conversation retrieved from the computer were from November 2011.

Early the following year, in February 2012, Dart and Mahmood met in person at a Subway restaurant in Ealing, west London, and were overheard by surveillance teams talking about areas where fighting was happening and the word “beheading” was used.

Dart said: “Things have to be done. It doesn’t matter even if you’re in this country or abroad, things have to be done.”

He went on: “A lot of brothers are scared of going inside for it but I’m not. I don’t need brothers around me to study jihad”.

Alom was in the Territorial Army in 2006 but was discharged on medical grounds, and then became a PCSO the following year before leaving the role in 2009.

Defending Alom, Aftab Jafferjee QC said he only wanted to fight Allied forces in Afghanistan, not attack civilians in the UK.

Ali Naseem Bajwa QC, for Dart, said he too only wanted to fight military forces in Afghanistan.

Peter Wilcock QC, for Mahmood, said his client admits having travelled to Pakistan for terrorist training. However, he said that after being approached to give advice to Dart Mahmood had not done anything further.