Trial hears of gruesome video
Videos showing hostages being beheaded and shot were found at the home of a West Midland teaching assistant alleged to have belonged to a terror cell that plotted to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier, a jury heard.
Videos showing hostages being beheaded and shot were found at the home of a West Midland teaching assistant alleged to have belonged to a terror cell that plotted to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier, a jury heard.
The bag packed full of gruesome CDs, DVDs and computer disks, including a terrorist's training manual called Encyclopaedia Jihad, was said to have been found in a bedroom wardrobe at the Birmingham home of terror suspect Zahoor Iqbal, aged 30.
Leicester Crown Court has heard how his Perry Barr house was raided last January during a police operation which uncovered a plot to behead the soldier "like a pig".
A jury was told how the terror gang had conspired to snatch the soldier from Birmingham's Broad Street entertainment district before taking him to a garage and filming his death for a video to be distributed on the internet.
Four men have pleaded guilty to offences relating to the cell's activities. Iqbal and another man are on trial after denying helping to equip terrorists.
Referring to the videos said to have been found at the home of Iqbal, Mr Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting, said: "They were extremely violent and extremely unpleasant pictures of real people being murdered.
"They indicated an unhealthy interest, not to say obsession, with extreme violence.
"There were hours and hours of material including images of hostages just before they were beheaded and shot."
Iqbal's fingerprints were found on some of the bag's contents, Mr Rumfitt told the jury.
They included a disk called Encyclopedia Jihad which detailed the detonation of bombs, sniper training and the production of powerful poisons.
This had the fingerprints of terror cell ringleader Parvez Khan (pictured), from Alum Rock, Birmingham, who has admitted his part in the plot to kill the soldier.
Mr Rumfitt observed: "The collection may have belonged to Khan but it was at Iqbal's house and must have been handled by him because his fingerprints were on some of it.
"He was so close to Khan and so supportive of him it is unlikely that he was not aware of, or interested in, Encyclopedia Jihad."
The trial continues.
By John Scott at Leicester Crown Cour
