Would-be bomber who changed his mind is jailed

It was the first major prosecution of an al-Qaeda terrorist in the UK since the September 11 attacks. Badat had planned to set off a bomb at the same time as the British ‘shoe bomber’, Richard Reid, who is serving a life sentence in the US, but Badat changed his mind and dismantled his shoe bomb, reports The Independent. Justice Fulford said Badat deserved credit for pleading guilty, adding ‘it would not be in the public interest to send out a message that if would-be terrorists turn away from death and destruction before any lives are put at risk, the courts will not reflect in a significant and real way any such genuine change of heart in the sentence which is handed down’. Full report in The Independent