Richard Dart and Imran Mahmood believed they were outwitting surveillance officers when they held a “silent conversation” on a laptop. As they plotted terror attacks and discussed how to make explosives, they had no idea they were leaving a technological footprint that would eventually build into key evidence against them. Over many months, police and experts pieced together 2,000 pages of computer codes, painstakingly translating them back into language “character by character” and piecing them together to make the conversation. In the words of one of the Counter Terrorism detectives involved the practice could be likened to the two terrorists writing on a notepad before ripping out the pages and destroying the paper. However, forensic analysis was able to find the imprint left behind and piece together the shredded. When ordered to stand, Richard Dart refused saying ‘I don’t wish to stand up because I believe ruling and judgement is only for Allah’. Richard Dart, the middle class boy from Dorset who turned into an Islamic extremist, remained defiant to the bitter end as a judge gave him an extended jail sentence for being a dangerous terrorist today. Richard Dart’s extremist beliefs were laid bare in a television documentary made by his step-brother. The film, called My Brother the Islamist, was broadcast on BBC Three in 2011 and featured Dart having close contact with hate preacher Anjem Choudary and declaring that he backed sharia law to eradicate evil in UK society. Bearded Dart, who had only been a Muslim for six months at that point, said: “I support the cause of jihad, that’s part of being a Muslim.”
