Uber driver found guilty of terror attacks at gay pride and Madame Tussauds

A jihadist has been convicted after plotting to drive a van into Gay Pride and other busy London tourist hotspots.

Former Uber driver Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, 28, was driven by ‘dreams of martyrdom’ as he planned gun, knife and van onslaughts on targets including Madame Tussauds, Piccadilly Circus and an open-top sightseeing bus last year.

The conviction comes just over a year after he was cleared of a sword attack on police outside Buckingham Palace during which he shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’.

But Chowdhury, from Luton, was unwittingly confiding his plans to undercover police posing as like-minded extremists who had him under surveillance during a five-month operation.

Preparing for his atrocity, he lifted weights, practised stabbing and rehearsed beheading techniques as well as booking shooting range training and trying to acquire a real gun, his trial at Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Chowdhury was cleared in December 2018 of slashing officers outside the Queen’s London residence and had bragged about deceiving the jury in that trial.

He had become fixated on the Royal Family and had talked about launching an attack during the two minutes’ silence on Remembrance Day, it was heard.

He remained emotionless as jurors found him guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, collecting information likely to be useful to someone preparing an act of terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications.

The second charge related to a document titled ‘guidance for doing just terror operations’ on his phone which included instructions on how to kill people with knives.

His sister Sneha Chowdhury, 25, has been convicted of one count of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism and cleared of another count of the same charge.

Jurors deliberated for eight hours and 39 minutes before returning their verdicts on Monday.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow…