Farhad Salah: Man who plotted terror attack using explosive driverless car found guilty

Judge records not guilty verdict for co-defendant charged with same crime

A court artist sketch shows Farhad Salah (left) and Andy Starr (second right) at an appearance in court in 2017 (PA Archive/PA Images)

A man has been found guilty of plotting a terror attack using an explosive device in a remotely-controlled vehicle.

Farhad Salah was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

His co-defendant, chip shop owner Andy Star, who was charged with the same offence, was cleared after the jury failed to reach a verdict on his case.

Prosecutors told the five-week trial that the two men were in the early stages of testing small improvised explosive devices when they were arrested in high-profile raids on their homes in a Sheffield community centre and a Chesterfield fish-and-chip shop in December 2017.

However, Mr Star has always insisted that gunpowder and other items found in his flat above the chip shop were all connected to his long-standing interest in fireworks.

A jury failed to reach verdicts on either man following a trial last year.

Anne Whyte QC, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Star will not face a second retrial and Judge Paul Watson QC said a not guilty verdict was recorded in his case.

The judge added he could go free but was informed that he will continue to be detained on immigration matters.

Salah will be sentenced on 24 July, the judge said.

The two men were charged in December 2017 after raids of five homes in Sheffield and Chesterfield by police who had been investigating a suspected Christmas terror plot.

Police said they were never able to identify Salah's intended target for the attack and it is understood he was not close to achieving his aim of putting a device in a driverless vehicle.

However, counterterrorism officers believe he was a "very real risk to the safety of the public in the UK".

Ms Whyte told the court Salah had sent a message in the weeks before his arrest, in which he said: "My only attempt is to find a way to carry out martyrdom operation with cars without driver, everything is perfect only the programme is left."

The prosecutor told the jury: "Farhad Salah had decided that improvised explosive devices could be made and used in a way here in the UK that spared his own life preferably but harmed others he considered to be infidels."

She also said Salah was active on social media and had spoken of his support for the group Islamic State (IS).

The court heard he had indicated a desire to join those fighting for IS and shared a propaganda film which glorified terrorism.

At the beginning of the trial, Ms Whyte told the jury that Salah was a supporter of IS, despite him being an Iraqi-Kurd - a nationality usually associated with the fight against the terror group.

Agencies contributed to this report