BRITAIN: Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism chief last night hailed a "very important conviction" after a British suicide bomber admitted plotting to blow up a passenger jet with a shoe bomb.
Saajid Badat (25) had an identical device to the one used by fellow Briton Richard Reid when he attempted to bring down a flight from Paris to Miami.
Intelligence services believe the two had been conspiring together, and had plotted to bring down passenger aircraft at similar times in late December 2001.
A piece of detonating cord from Reid's bomb matched that of Badat's. Reid tried unsuccessfully to ignite his shoe bomb and was jailed for life in the US, but Badat changed his mind and dismantled his device, which was specially designed to evade airport security.
He had intended to use the bomb to destroy a passenger aircraft while in the air from Europe to the US. Police said he had been prepared to kill hundreds of innocent people.
Badat had received training in Afghanistan, where Reid was also trained by the al-Qaeda terror network. He was arrested at his family home in Gloucester in November 2003 and had been expected to stand trial.
But he admitted conspiring to blow up an aircraft between January 1st, 1999 and November 28th, 2003 in a surprise change of plea yesterday at the Old Bailey court in London.