Tom Little prosecuting Islamic State inspired terror plot in London

News | Mon 18th Jan, 2016

Tom Little is on the prosecution team in the trial of four British men who plotted to carry out an “Islamic State” inspired terrorist attack in London.

Tarik Hassane, 22, Suhaib Majeed, 21, Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Nathan Cuffy, 26, all deny the conspiracy to murder and terrorism charges.

The prosecution’s case is that the men were plotting to target police officers, soldiers or civilians following a fatwa from Isis urging its supporters to “kill disbelievers in the West”.

Brian Altman QC, leading Tom Little, opened the case telling the jury that “with their arrests, the police successfully disrupted a plot to kill a police officer, a soldier or possibly even a civilian, in one or more terrorist attacks, which, if the plot had been allowed to run its course, would have resulted in a terrorist murder or murders on the streets of London, according to the warped ideology of the defendants, in the cause, and for the sake, of Allah,”.

He continued “the evidence points to this being a plot to kill; a plot to execute a policeman, or a soldier or, as I say, even an ordinary member of the public, in one or more assassinations either involving a drive-by shooting or a shooting on foot and then a speedy escape by moped.”

The prosecution claims Hassane used his tablet to carry out a hostile reconnaissance in the first week of October 2014 of the police station at Shepherd’s Bush and the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army barracks at White City.

The men were known associates. Tariq Hassane was a medical student and friends with Suhaib Majeed, who was a physics student at King’s College London. Nyall Hamlett worked for a cleaning company and Nathan Cuffy worked at the Money Shop, a foreign exchange and loans company, and is alleged to have been the armourer for the plot.

Altman said: “So here Hassane and Majeed were the principal planners. Hamlett had the all-important key role of being the middleman between the principals and Cuffy, who armed the plot.”

The prosecutor added: “All, say the prosecution, had signed up to a conspiracy to murder. Even though no actual target or targets had been identified, and the defendants were a little way off from carrying it out, nonetheless they had all agreed to kill another person or persons. After all, you can hardly discuss, supply, transfer and acquire a working gun with several rounds of ammunition suitable for use in it, as well as a silencer, for anything less than to kill someone. This is why all the defendants are charged with conspiracy to murder.”

The case continues at the central criminal court is expected to last three months.