RAF war veteran jailed for terror offences
Stephen Gray, 32, also known as Mustafa, pleaded guilty last year
An RAF Iraq War veteran who converted to Islam and twice attempted to join jihadis in Syria has been jailed for five years. Stephen Gray, 32, also known as Mustafa, pleaded guilty last year to preparing to commit acts of terrorism, assisting another in committing acts of terrorism and funding terrorism. His co-defendant, Libyan refugee Abdalraouf Abdallah, 23, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court in May of helping Gray and three others get to Syria. Gray, of Whitnall Street, Moss Side, Manchester, was jailed at Woolwich Crown Court and will be on extended licence for four years once his sentence is complete. Abdallah, of Westerling Way, Moss Side, will also be on licence for an extra four years after his five-and-a-half-year jail term for preparation, commission or assisting acts of terrorism and funding terrorism. Abdallah, wheelchair bound after he was shot in Libya in 2011, also tried to arrange firearms for three men and sent £2,000 to his brother, Mohammed Abdallah, for terrorist purposes. Despite the best efforts of Abdallah, Gray was twice turned back from Turkey, once in Istanbul on July 5 2014 and again from the Bulgaria/Turkey border several weeks later on July 21. Prosecutor Max Hill QC said one of Abdallah's contacts in Brussels, known only as Obaida, was ''facilitating the movements of terrorists across mainland Europe''. He accused him of being ''at the centre of a jihadist network facilitating foreign fighters''. ''You were intent upon sending fighters to join groups in Syria who were committing terrorist acts in that country,'' he added. Abdallah, who came to the UK with his family as refugees in 1993, exchanged dozens of messages with Gray over Skype, Viber and WhatsApp about his travel in the months before July 2014. The pair had apparently known each other for seven or eight years after they met playing football together in Manchester. Gray served as a gunner in No 2 Squadron of the RAF Regiment, protecting airfields and aircraft, and was stationed in Baghdad in 2004. He was born to Christian parents and converted to Islam after his time in the British military. He had his own cleaning company and two wives, under sharia law, who live in Manchester, and he is also a father. Gray allegedly had a contact in Syria, whom he met at an Arabic university in Egypt, and tried to get to the country by air via Turkey and overground across Europe. Abdallah insisted he hated IS and was acting as a ''Royal Mail messenger'' passing information between his friends and brother in Syria. But a search of his home in August 2014 indicated he had been successful in sourcing automatic weapons which would have been waiting for Gray when he arrived in Syria. The counter-terrorism investigation began after detectives discovered that Abdallah's brother, Mohammed, had travelled to Syria earlier in 2014, and culminated with the arrest of the two defendants in November 2014. Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said: Abdalraouf Abdallah was very much a key part of the communication between this group of associates who travelled abroad with the intention of committing acts of terrorism.By regularly providing them with contact details and updates on each other, he supported their efforts to evade authorities and travel to Syria to continue their extremist lifestyles. Although he may not have been there committing these acts himself, his actions helped facilitate what they were doing and I hope his conviction will send a message to all those who are even considering offering a helping hand to terrorists.''