Chemistry teacher jailed for six years for terror offences

He was arrested two days after the argument, in December 2013, hours before he was due to leave the UK. Police found a rucksack containing 1,490 in cash, thermal gloves and combat-style trousers at his home.

Javeed, who taught secondary pupils chemistry at Sharples High School in Bolton, denied that he was going to fight with Isis. He claimed that he had planned to go to Syria on humanitarian grounds to assist civilians against President Assad, saying that he is not an extremist, and that he has never supported "the aims of Isis as now revealed and understood".

Charles Bott QC, for Javed, said that the "thoughtful, studious and mild-mannered" teacher was "deeply moved" by images of "extreme suffering" of Syrian people under Assad's regime, and he "is one of many people who did not know the truth about Isis in the later months of 2013".

However, Simon Denison QC, prosecuting, told the court that Javeed was planning to take part in action which "would have involved the use of firearms and/or explosives". Javeed, he continued, planned to "commit multiple acts of murder in guerrilla warfare to advance their [Isis's] religious or ideological cause".

However Judge Michael Topolski QC said that he was not satisfied that Javeed had rejected "Isis's ultimate aims".

Delivering sentence, he said: "By late summer or early autumn 2013 you had become sufficiently radicalised and committed to a violent jihadist ideology that you were part of a group of young men determined to travel to Syria to join Isis and to fight and die for them."

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Chemistry teacher jailed for six years for terror offences