Matthew King pleaded guilty to plotting a terror attack against police (Picture: Met Police)

Islamic State fanatic Matthew King, 19, has appeared at the Old Bailey to be sentenced for plotting a terror attack on British police officers or soldiers.

King, from Wickford in Essex, has previously pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between December 22 2021 and May 17 2022.

In mitigation, his barrister Hossein Zahir KC said King was ‘immature’ and the prospect he would have carried out a terror attack in the UK or travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State was ‘remote’.

While in custody, King had made a comment about ‘beheading an imam’ but that was said out of frustration at his cell door being closed rather than as a genuine threat, Mr Zahir said.

The barrister argued that despite such incidents of ‘offensive and abusive’ behaviour, King was ‘slowly and steadily’ disengaging from the excesses of extremism.

And in a prison phone call, King told his mother: ‘I’m not extreme anymore.’

Judge Mark Lucraft KC’s sentencing of King at the Old Bailey will be broadcast later.

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