Graduate jailed over terror offence

An engineering graduate who applied to work at the Olympics has been jailed for nine months for a terror offence.

Norman Idris Faridi, 32, was turned down after applying to work last summer at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, where some football matches for the London 2012 Games were held.

The Kenyan national was later found to have a "terrorist's manual", 39 Ways To Serve And Proceed In Jihad, on his external hard drive and in a deleted file.

Faridi, of Pen-y-Wain, Cathays, Cardiff, was also found to have downloaded a video of extremist preacher Abu Hamza on to his mobile phone.

Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, Judge Gerald Gordon said: "Nothing I can see suggests that the item had been stored in some special way or special file. Nor is there in fact anything to suggest that you or anyone else had actually made use of it during the time it was in your possession.

"On the other hand, Parliament has determined that such is the need to protect the public from acts of terrorism that possessing material that may help those contemplating terrorism should be against the law and it should be punished in particular to deter others."

The judge also ordered that Faridi, who is married with a young child, should be deported after serving his sentence. He had been found guilty at trial of possessing records likely to be useful to someone preparing or committing an act of terrorism.

A similar charge of having al Qaida's Inspire magazine was ordered to lie on file after the jury could not reach a verdict. Faridi was cleared of a third charge of having a guide to fighting techniques for a similar purpose.

The court heard of the Kenyan's bid to work at the Olympics during a bail hearing last year.

The former Glamorgan University aeronautics engineering student, who graduated in 2010, renewed his visa and stayed on in Britain with his wife. He was working in a bakery when police raided his home and took away computer equipment in April last year.