RAF
RAF Iraq Veteran Jailed For Trying To Join Daesh
A former RAF gunner has been jailed for five years for trying to join Daesh in Syria.
Stephen Gray, also known as Mustafa Gray, converted to Islam after leaving the RAF.
He had already made two trips to Syria using aid convoys as cover before he was caught by authorities.
He's reportedly the only British serviceman to have admitted trying to join the terror group.
Gray was a gunner stationed at Baghdad Airport with No. 2 Squadron following the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces in 2003.
His lawyer told Woolwich Crown Court he had some "fairly extreme experiences" during the conflict and became "disenchanted" with the military.
He left the Armed Forces a year later and found work as a bricklayer and a cleaner.
In 2014 Gray, assisted by friend and Libyan refugee Abdalraouf Abdallah, twice attempted to get into Syria to join terror groups.
But he was stopped at the Turkish border both times after border police were tipped off by the UK’s counter terrorism police.
He was arrested four months later.
The 32-year-old, from Moss Side in Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to committing acts of terrorism, being engaged in preparation of these acts and assisting acts of terrorism.
Abdallah, a wheelchair-bound extremist from Manchester, was jailed for five and a half years.
They will both serve an extra four years on licence so authorities can monitor them.
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