Two British-born Islamic extremists used a laptop to hold 'silent conversations' about a terror attack on soldiers and grieving families as the war dead were returned through the town of Royal Wootton Bassett, the Old Bailey heard
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 getting terrorist training in Pakistan.
Plot: Richard Dart has admitted to involvement with terrorism offences along with Imran Mahmood, 21, and Jahangir Alom, 26
Suspicion: British soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan pass along the High Street in Wootton Bassett, where the terror group was believed to be targeting
Co-conspirators: Former PCSO Jahangir Alom (left) and Imran Mahmood (right) also pleaded guilty at the Old bailey last month
He, Mahmood and co-defendant Jahangir Alom all admitted engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism last month.
On Wednesday the sentencing process, which could take until Thursday, 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.
'Having had that discussion by typing into the document, 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 that 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.
'They knew that their activities were likely to be of interest to the authorities and that ordinary conversation within their homes may be recorded by listening devices.'
In the conversations, Dart asked Mahmood about getting contacts with the Pakistan Taliban, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, 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.
Extreme: Dart has made several appearances on YouTube and on BBC TV discussing his faith and his views, as well as attending several anti-British protests in London (right)
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 Broadway, Ealing, west London; Mahmood, 22, from Dabbs Hill Lane, Northolt, west London, and Alom, 26, of Abbey Road, 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. Mr Nasar has not been charged with any offence.
Prosecutors say that all three defendants travelled to Pakistan for terrorist training, although Dart and Alom were unsuccessful in that aim.
Admission: Richard Dart had travelled to Pakistan for terror training and was implicated after police seized a computer
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'.
He added: 'The training that Dart and Alom sought and which Mahmood attempted to assist them acquire, would have taught Dart and Alom the skills and techniques necessary to commit acts of terrorism both abroad but also in the UK, although there is no evidence that any planning for an identifiable target had actually been carried out.'
In opening the sentencing hearing against the trio Mr Laidlaw said both Dart and Alom had denied targetting the UK in their basis of pleas which was not acceptable to the prosecution.
He said: 'Dart’s assertion that he did not intent to commit acts of terrorism a) involving the targetting of civilians or loss of civilian lives or b) in the UK.
'As to the targetting of civilians, armed combat in Afghanistan or Pakistan he would, suggests the prosecution, plainly involve acts that may threaten the lives of civilians. Indeed the TTP - the Taliban in Pakistan - are known to deliberately launch attacks against the civilian population.
Stand: Dart pictured before his arrest during a Muslims against Crusades protest against the Royal Wedding outside the House Of Commons
Home: Dart had lived in a luxury flat here in Mile End, East London, paid for by benefits
'Whilst Dart’s primary intention appears to commit terrorist attacks abroad, he’s certainly not ruling out the possibility of carrying out terrorist attacks in this country at some future date.
'It would be wrong that sentencing should be passed on the basis Dart and Alom did not intend to engage in terrorist activities in this country.
'It would ignore the clear evidence in this case, that they contemplated of such an act in this country.'
The trio were arrested in July of last year. They each pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism between July 2010 and July 2012.
Last year the Dart, who has changed his name to Salahuddin al Britani, featured in a BBC documentary filmed by his own brother about his conversion to Islam.
During the film, called My Brother the Islamist, Dart was seen protesting about British soldiers in Afghanistan and calling them ‘murderers.’
The former BBC security guard also called for Sharia law to be established in Britain.
Alom’s wife Ruksana Begum, 22, of Islington, has already been sentenced to a year after pleaded guilty to possessing a the al Qaeda magazines Inspire.