Bomber 'influenced' by preacher

Al-Faisal was found guilty of three charges of soliciting murder

London bomber Germaine Lindsay was "strongly influenced" by an extremist preacher serving a prison sentence for race hate crimes, John Reid has said.

Giving the government's account of the bombings, the home secretary said Lindsay had listened to tapes of lectures by Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal.

Lindsay had attended at least one of his lectures, Mr Reid told the Commons.

Muslim cleric Faisal was jailed in 2003 for crimes including soliciting the murder of Jews and Hindus.

It is believed he was strongly influenced by the extremist preacher Abdullah el-Faisal John Reid

Jamaican-born Briton Lindsay, 19, who lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire was responsible for the blast at King's Cross that killed 27 people.

The government's official narrative said: "It is believed he was strongly influenced by the extremist preacher Abdullah al-Faisal - also of Jamaican origin - now serving a prison sentence for soliciting murder, incitement to murder and incitement to racial hatred an distributing material of a racial hatred nature."

Taped recordings of al-Faisal's lectures, which Lindsay listened to, were sold at specialist Islamic bookshops.

The tapes formed the basis of the prosecution's case in the 2003 Old Bailey trial of the Islam convert, from Stratford, east London.

Lindsay converted to Islam shortly after his mother in 2000.

Racial hatred

Al-Faisal's trial heard he spent years travelling the UK preaching racial hatred urging his audience to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners.

In return for becoming martyrs, he promised them the reward of a place in paradise.

Al-Faisal was found guilty of three charges of soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans and Hindus.

And he was found guilty by a jury of six men and six women of two charges of using threatening words to stir up racial hatred.