Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court in December and have been sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of 37 and 26 years respectively for the crime.

They had bought assault rifles, handguns and ammunition for the suicide attack they planned on Jewish targets. They saw any Christian victims "as a bonus".

Saadaoui's brother, Bilel Saddaoui, 36, of Fairclough Street, Hindley, Wigan, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about the pair's terror plans and was sentenced to six years in jail with an additional year on licence.

Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the plan would have resulted in "the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history".

The consequences of carrying out an attack in a crowded area on the Manchester Jewish community would have been "catastrophic", he said.

Saadaoui, the former owner of an Italian restaurant in a Norfolk seaside town, "hero-worshipped" Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Paris attacks of 2015, and wanted to replicate the attacks in which 130 people were killed, the prosecution told Preston Crown Court.

He sold up, moved north and used part of the proceeds from his house sale to pay €5,000 (£4,400) as an initial payment for four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 1,200 rounds of ammunition as he planned a marauding gun attack in revenge for Israeli attacks on Gaza.

His target was the same area of Manchester where terrorist Jihad al Shamie later stabbed a worshipper to death outside a synagogue on 2 October.

Police were so worried about the threat posed by Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein that they established a huge armed operation to protect an undercover operative as he met with the men to determine what they were planning.

The operation followed them as they twice travelled from Greater Manchester to the White Cliffs National Trust nature reserve near Dover, posing as tourists to observe the security checks at the port below where the weapons were to be imported from France.

Saadaoui conducted a surveillance trip around the area of Manchester, where he planned to attack with the undercover officer known as "Farouk" and told him he wanted to target schools and gatherings, adding: "Young, old, women, elderly, the whole lot, killing them all."

He was caught "red-handed" by police following an undercover sting operation as he took delivery of the first shipment of weapons, supplied and deactivated by police, from the boot of a rented Lexus.

Police bodyworn footage showed him running 20 yards across the car park of the Last Drop, a Lancashire spa hotel, before he was grabbed by armed officers and brought to the ground on 8 May last year.

MI5 believe that Saadaoui had previously been in contact with an extremist called Hamid al Masalkhi from Cardiff, who had left Britain to join ISIS in 2013 but later died from cancer, sources say.

The sentencing judge, Mr Justice Wall, said: "I want to commend Farouk. His is a dangerous and difficult job and he undertook it with great skill and patience. He has potentially saved very many lives by risking his own.

"I am not allowed to know his true identity but I hope these remarks will be passed back to him."

The judge said he was sure Saadaoui and Hussein's "act of wickedness" would have resulted in the deaths of "very many people" of all ages, including children.

He added: "I am sure that you were both fervent supporters of ISIS. You saw anyone who did not hold similar views to your own as an enemy."

'Largest and most complex' counter-terrorism investigation

Saadaoui, a former hotel entertainer originally from Tunisia, married an English woman called Jane and moved to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, in 2012 and then to Great Yarmouth, where he worked in the shop at the Haven Holiday Park.

He bought the Albatross Restaurant in the seaside town for £25,000 in April 2018 but closed the business four years later, sold his house in Ipswich Road for £169,000 in May 2023 and moved to Wigan with his second wife, Michelle, and two young children.

He worked briefly at a discount store in Wigan called Bonkers Prices, then gave up work, claimed universal credit and regularly posted statements from ISIS on Facebook.

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However, his postings drew the attention of MI5 and on 28 November 2023, they began an investigation, codenamed Operation Catogenic, described by police as the "largest scale and most complex covert counter-terrorism investigation ever conducted in the North West".

Investigators believe Saadaoui was already preparing to launch an attack. Farouk, the undercover officer, told his bosses he believed Saadaoui would "kill a lot of people" if they did not intervene.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the jail terms for the two extremists, writing on social media: "Good. This is a horrifying case.

"I want to thank law enforcement for bringing these vile cowards to justice and reassure our Jewish community that we will never relent in our fight against antisemitism and terror."

The 28-year-old, a world and European champion, had been the favourite for gold after leading at the halfway stage of the event on Thursday, with track records in the first two heats.

On Friday, the British athlete posted another track record on his third run - recording a 0.39-second advantage at the top of the leaderboard.

A near faultless run in his final heat at the Milano Cortina Games saw him increase his margin of victory to 0.88s, bringing the gold home.

Germany's Axel Jungk took ⁠silver for ​the second ​successive Games, ​while compatriot and ⁠defending champion Christopher ⁠Grotheer got ​the bronze.

In March 2025, he took his second world champion crown and last month he clinched his third successive overall World Cup title.

Explainer: Who is Matt Weston?

His Olympic win marks the first-ever gold in the men's skeleton for Team GB.

Weston made his debut in skeleton in 2019, previously competing in taekwondo and securing several European and international honours.

He continued in that discipline until the age of 17, when he retired due to injury.

Team GB have won a medal in the skeleton at each of the Games since 2002 until 2018.

Lizzy Yarnold secured two golds, at Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018, while Dom Parsons was Britain's first male skeleton medallist since 1948 in South Korea, winning bronze in the men's event.

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However, it will remain outlawed for now as the government intends to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Huda Ammori launched the challenge after former home secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to proscribe the group, which came into force in July last year.

It followed action by members of the group that included breaking into RAF Brize Norton and spray-painting two aircraft.

The ban put Palestine Action on the same footing as ISIS and al Qaeda, making membership or support of a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Even wearing a T-shirt or carrying a sign with the group's name on it can carry a six-month sentence.

Ms Ammori called the ruling at London's High Court "a monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people".

She said the ban had resulted in nearly 3,000 unlawful arrests and claimed it "was always about appeasing pro-Israel lobby groups and weapons manufacturers, and nothing to do with terrorism".

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was "disappointed" and disagreed with the court that the ban was disproportionate.

She said she would appeal against the ruling, and the government had used a "rigorous and evidence-based decision-making process" when outlawing the group.

"The court has acknowledged that Palestine Action has carried out acts of terrorism, celebrated those who have taken part in those acts and promoted the use of violence," Ms Mahmood said in a statement.

She said the ban still allowed people to protest peacefully in support of Palestinians.

Ms Ammori's lawyers had argued the ban was unprecedented and compared Palestine Action - which she co-founded in 2020 - to the suffragettes.

In her ruling, Judge Dame Victoria Sharp agreed Palestine Action "promotes its ⁠political cause through criminality".

However, she said the ban was still disproportionate as it interfered with the Human Rights Act, specifically the freedom of ​expression and freedom of assembly.

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Legal expert Joshua Rozenberg said the court had decided a very small number of the group's members carried out acts amounting to "terrorism" and these hadn't reached a level that warranted a blanket ban.

The Metropolitan Police said the group remains banned, "which means expressing support is still a criminal offence".

A statement said the force would "continue to identify offences where support for Palestine Action is being expressed" but would "focus on gathering evidence... for enforcement at a later date, rather than making arrests at the time".

Some 2,787 people have been arrested since the ban came into force, according to the Defend Our Juries group, which organises protests against the ban.

Raza Husain KC, representing Ms Ammori, had told the court that "priests, teachers, pensioners, retired British Army officers" and an "81-year-old former magistrate" were among them.

Normal People author Sally Rooney also supported the challenge.

The writer said she might not be able to publish new books in the UK after saying she would donate earnings to the group.

Earlier this month, six Palestine Action activists were cleared over a 2024 break-in at an Israeli-linked defence firm's site in Bristol.

They were accused of spraying paint from fire extinguishers, using crowbars and hammers to break computer equipment and smashing up the disabled toilet.

However, they were found not guilty of charges including aggravated burglary and violent disorder, while the jury failed to reach verdicts on allegations of criminal damage.

In March 2021, when he was a serving Metropolitan Police officer, Couzens used his police warrant to lure Sarah Everard into a fake arrest while she was walking home from a friend's house in south London, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He later raped and murdered her.

In 2023, London's mayor Sadiq Khan successfully applied to the home secretary to have any money that Couzens could have earned in pension payments while serving at the Met forfeited.

It's understood to be so small that it would be a negligible amount because of the short length of service there.

Mr Khan, who is also the city's police and crime commissioner, at the time also believed Couzens had "approximately seven years' pension service" with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), between 2011 and 2018, according to a letter shared with Sky News.

This is a special force which guards nuclear facilities and is the ultimate responsibility of the energy secretary. It is not like other forces, which fall under the home secretary.

In a letter from 2023 to the then energy secretary, Grant Shapps, and shared with Sky News, Mr Khan said the CNC portion of Couzens' pension "sits outside the normal police pension regulations".

Freedom of information data obtained by Sky News shows there were no pension forfeitures from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary between 2020 and September 2025. It is understood that remains the case.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson told Sky News they are "absolutely determined that Wayne Couzens does not receive a Civil Nuclear Constabulary pension".

Sky News understands there is an ongoing and complex legal process, and that the government is considering legislation, if required, in order to resolve it.

The CNC said when Couzens was convicted, it made a recommendation to the employing force that he should lose his pension benefits, but that it has no decision-making powers.

"After committing such heinous crimes, Wayne Couzens should not receive a penny in taxpayer-funded pension. Londoners would be furious if he did," Sadiq Khan told Sky News.

"Every possible step should be taken to ensure that Wayne Couzens does not receive his Civil Nuclear Constabulary pension."

It is possible for a pension forfeiture to give an individual back the money that they have contributed, while the state retains any money paid in by the police service, funded by the taxpayer.

"When in prison Wayne Couzens' pension would be suspended, but on his death his family could be entitled to up to 50% of his pension," Bethan Shellard-Dedman, a lecturer in policing practice, told Sky News.

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The requirements for an officer to have their pension forfeited are that they commit an offence against the Official Secrets Act or they are convicted of an offence that is either; "gravely injurious to the interests of the state", in connection with their "service as a member of a police force" or "liable to lead to a serious loss of confidence in the public service".

"If the forfeiture is successful, the individual officer has their contribution returned. The police force would then retain what they contributed. The amounts of which can vary," said Ms Shellard-Dedman.

"If you think of that pot as a whole as 100%, what the force contributes is normally around 65%. They can either get the full 65% back or they can get 30% back, in which case the officer would then retain some police pension. But it depends on the individual award."

Couzens has been convicted of crimes committed in 2021 against Sarah Everard, and indecent exposure offences committed in February 2021 and 2020.

These offences were during the period he served at the Metropolitan Police.

Abdullah Yaser Abdullah al Yazidi, 16, was fatally struck by an Audi driven down the wrong side of the road by Zulkernain Ahmed in Sheffield last June.

The victim was thrown in the air by the impact, the city's crown court heard.

Video footage was shown to jurors of the vehicle on Staniforth Road, in the Darnall area of Sheffield, colliding with who the prosecution said was e-bike rider La'rome Divers, knocking him over a hedge, before hitting Abdullah.

Zulkernain Ahmed was also convicted of causing Mr Divers grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent and attempting to cause two unidentified riders GBH with intent.

Ahmed, 21; his brother Armaan Ahmed, 27; and Adam Mohammed, 30; had all previously denied murdering Abdullah.

Prosecutors said the defendants, all of Darnall, were out looking for Mr Divers over a dispute about e-bikes.

Zulkernain Ahmed used the car as a "weapon" as he targeted Mr Divers, who was riding with two others - one on a moped and the other on another e-bike, according to prosecutors.

Armaan Ahmed, who was a back seat passenger in the Audi, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and of causing GBH to Mr Divers.

Another back seat passenger, Adam Mohammed, 30, was cleared of both murder and manslaughter and a number of other charges.

All three defendants were cleared of attempting to murder the three riders after three days of deliberation by the jury of nine women and three men.

A third Ahmed brother, Zain, who police have not traced, was the front seat passenger of the Audi.

Mr Divers, who refused to make a statement to police, was seriously injured in the incident, the court heard.

Abdullah, who was seen throwing and catching a water bottle as he walked along the pavement before the collision on 4 June last year, was "in the wrong place at the wrong time", said prosecutors.

In his evidence, Zulkernain Ahmed said he was looking for Mr Divers because he was worried he was a threat to his family, and spotted him riding on Staniforth Road.

The defendant, who admitted taking a baseball bat with him, told the jury he only wanted to talk to Mr Divers but "at the last second I got scared and panicked" and decided to "give him a nudge".

He told the jury: "It was not my intention for anything like this to happen to (Abdullah) or to anyone."

Armaan Ahmed told police he went with his brother for a meeting about a bike, and he was there to "make sure he was safe".

Adam Mohammed told police "my sole purpose for getting in the vehicle was to smoke a spliff and then to go play snooker", the court heard.

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The jury had been told Zulkernain Ahmed had admitted the manslaughter of Abdullah and one charge of causing GBH.

Abdullah's family said in a statement they welcomed the guilty verdict and were "devastated by our loss".

Detective Chief Inspector Benjamin Wood, of South Yorkshire Police, said: "Abdullah was an entirely innocent boy who tragically lost his life after being struck by a car on Staniforth Road in June last year.

"He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The officer called it a "heartbreaking case which was entirely avoidable".

The Ahmed brothers will be sentenced on 4 June.