Philanderer, thief and Islam foot soldier: the bizarre Briton cleared of blast charge

Among the ranks of international Islamic extremists Perry Jensen makes an unlikely foot soldier.

Jensen, from London, who has nine children, converted to Islam in 1994 after a life of petty crime and womanising. On Monday, a Moroccan court found that it was the 37-year-old's philandering - rather than any alleged connection with Islamic terrorism - for which he should be punished.

The judge said there was insufficient evidence to support charges that he had helped to plan the suicide bombings in Casablanca, which killed 44 people. But on charges of bigamy, the court in the capital, Rabat, sent Jensen to prison for four months. He was found guilty of marrying a 16-year-old Moroccan girl while he was still married to a woman in Britain.

The case of Perry Jensen has been compared to that of John Walker Lindh - the white American captured fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan. But Jensen's family maintains that he has always been more interested in peace than taking part in any holy war.

Nevertheless, his name is well known to MI5, which has charted his progress across many of the world's Islamic extremist hotspots, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

In London, Jensen had been under investigation by the Security Service for his alleged support for Chechen separatists fighting the Russians. He was believed to have been involved in fund-raising and the possible recruitment of British Muslims to fight in Chechnya.

But his role among Islamic extremists was considered that of a "foot soldier".

Jensen was born in Westbourne Park, in London's Moroccan community, so it is easy to imagine how as a young man he might have mixed in the cafés frequented by Arabs that line Golborne Road, a stone's throw from his home, and how he could have been attracted to Islam. But it seems Jensen had other things on his mind by the time he left Cardinal Manning, a Catholic school in Ladbroke Grove. At 16, he had fathered his first child.

"Perry's problem is that he can't keep his trousers on, which has caused all this trouble," said his mother, Mary, an Irish Catholic who grew up in Liverpool before moving to London after the Second World War. When he left school he became involved in crime, mostly stealing and fencing stolen goods, and served time in Feltham young offenders' institution.

His mother said he discovered Islam during one of his stretches in prison. The experience transformed his life and led him to return to the Moroccan community in which he had grown up. He changed his name to Abou Yassine and married his first wife, a British Moroccan.

His lawyer in Morocco said he became a regular visitor to the country in the 1990s, buying a house in Fez two years ago. At the same time, he married a 16-year-old girl.He was living there in May this year when 12 suicide bombers set off explosions in Casablanca thattore through a Jewish community centre and cemetery, the Belgian consulate, a Spanish restaurant and a hotel.

Jensen and another Briton, Abdellatif Merroun, 42, are among 1,000 people arrested by the Moroccan authorities.

Mr Merroun, 42, who holds dual British and Moroccan nationality, is still in custody in connection with the bombings and is expected to appear before a court in the Moroccan capital in the next few weeks.

Jensen has eight days to appeal his conviction for bigamy.