Ludlow, who called himself “The Ghost” and was nicknamed “The Eagle,” must serve a minimum of 15 years behind bars
Muslim convert Lewis Ludlow, 27, from Rochester, Kent, was jailed for life today and told he must serve a minimum of 15 years at the Old Bailey for plotting to kill 100 people in a London terror attack.
Ludlow, nicknamed “The Eagle,” claimed he had been instructed to carry out the attack by Islamic State and was told to set off a truck bomb after being refused permission to leave the UK.
The court heard he planned to target Oxford Street to make the British people “pay in their blood”. Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said he was satisfied that Ludlow was “engaged in preparations to launch a spectacular multi victim attack”.
“Multiple deaths were risked and very likely to be caused,” he said.
Ludlow carried out reconnaissance of central London targets and filmed a pledge of allegiance to IS.
Detectives recovered torn-up notes from bins outside his home which listed potential targets, including the Disney Store on Oxford Street, and said as many as 100 people could be killed in an attack using a bomb-laden truck.
Sentencing him, Judge Hilliard said Ludlow had “shown an interest in extremism for a number of years” which involved a “deep and genuine attachment to its objectives”.
He described him as “nobody’s fool” and said he was not being forced to do anything by a Philippines-based IS militant, with whom Ludlow was plotting.”I do not regard you as suggestible or easily taken advantage of, ” he said.”You were an enthusiastic participant in a joint plan.”
He dismissed a claim by Ludlow made during hearings earlier this year that he had disengaged from the terror plot early on.
He also said there was no evidence that Ludlow had changed his mindset before being arrested in April last year.
The judge said Ludlow’s autism and depression did not explain his “participation in these offences”, and added that his “adherence to violent Jihad” was the “result of free choices made by you”.
The former Royal Mail worker, who called himself “The Ghost”, had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group and was communicating with an IS leader in the Philippines.He had planned to join the group in that country but his passport was revoked, leaving him feeling like “a trapped animal unable to escape from its cage”.
In a video shown in court, Ludlow said: “I have nothing for this country of Britain. I spit on your citizenship, your passport, you can go to hell with that.”Ludlow said the cancellation of his passport “literally broke my heart” and he had then been encouraged by his Filipino contact to carry out a terror attack in the UK instead.He pleaded guilty in August to preparing acts of terrorism, but claimed he had abandoned the idea. He also admitted funding IS abroad and was sentenced to a further seven years in prison to run concurrently.
