Islamic extremist jailed over gun attack plot

A teenager who planned to fly to Somalia to join the Islamic State group has been jailed after he admitted planning a terrorist attack with a gun.

The Old Bailey in London heard how Italian national, Muhammad Billal, who lived in Nelson, Lancashire, had researched how to buy weapons and downloaded maps of locations including military bases in the UK and a college in his local area.

When police arrested Billal at Manchester Airport in November 2024 they found terrorist literature on his mobile phone, and an internet search history of guns, such as rifles and semi-automatic weaponry.

Billal, now 19, has been given a 13-and-a-half year sentence after pleading guilty to terrorism charges.

He was charged in February 2025 with two counts of preparation of terrorist acts and four counts of collecting information likely to be used by a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, told Billal: "By your own account to the probation officer, you intended to kill members of the public and you hoped to be killed by police."

She added: "You could not be sure that you would not have gone through with the attack."

The court heard he repeatedly accessed IS material and declared his support for the organisation throughout 2024 until his arrest.

The teenager also avidly collected "a wealth" of terrorist propaganda published by IS's propaganda arm.

After downloading a secure messaging app and chatting to contacts he went on to buy plane tickets to fly to Somalia via Dubai so he could train at a terrorist camp, the court heard.

Billal told police in an interview that he had been "naive and bored" and claimed he was "not a violent person".

He said he had been travelling to Somalia "for the sunshine".

But prosecuting counsel Simon Gurney KC told the judge that if police had not stopped Billal he would have received a three-month spell of terrorism training with the Islamic State group.

The court heard how in the run up to his arrest he was challenged and labelled as a terrorist in a chat on the Discord discussion app.

"I'm protecting Muslims and fighting their enemies," he replied.

"For you they're (IS) terrorists but for me they're fighters for justice and truth."

The court heard his terror attack planning involved researching "nearby shooting ranges" and buying a gun on the "dark web" using cryptocurrency.

He also conducted online reconnaissance of potential attack locations, including churches, synagogues, busy railway stations and Manchester United's stadium.

Defending Billal, Andrew Morris said the defendant was "vulnerable" and had been "brainwashed" as a teenager after coming to the UK from Italy with his parents when he was 13.

Judge Cheema-Grubb accepted that Billal had been looking for "belonging and brotherhood" through the ideology, but not that he had been exploited.

"You were motivated by Islamic State ideology and you were motivated by martyrdom," she said.

Since being in prison, Billal has reportedly started to move away from that ideology but was still assessed as a "high risk" of further terrorist related offending, the court heard.

In April last year, prison officers found a picture of an IS flag in Billal's cell.

Judge Cheema-Grubb added: "You said that if you had gone to Somalia you would have killed innocent people and that you were glad you had now been arrested because it stopped you from becoming a murderer."

Billal admitted all six offences in July last year.

The judge said that while some of his offending had occurred when he was 17 "it doesn't reduce the gravity of what you did".

"I don't accept you were groomed; you started off on this track entirely yourself," she added.

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