Terror suspects 'tried to create explosive device involving driverless car'

Two men accused of jointly plotting a terror attack were trying to create an explosive device involving a driverless car.

The suspects - including a fish and chip shop worker from Chesterfield - were working together to make the weapon, a court has heard.

Andy Star, who lived at the Mermaid Fish Bar on Sheffield Road in Chesterfield, 'had access to the materials necessary to conduct small test runs' and made such devices in his flat.

Prosecutor Anne Whyte QC told Sheffield Crown Court that Star, who is 32, and Farhad Salah were supporters of terrorist organisation Islamic State.

Salah, who is 23, arrived in the UK in 2014 but had not had his asylum claim determined prior to his arrest.

Ms Whyte added: "The prosecution allege that Farhad Salah and Andy Star had decided that improvised explosive devices could be made and used in a way here in the UK that spared their own lives preferably but harmed others they considered to be infidels."

During her opening speech, Ms Whyte read a message from Salah from December 2017, in which he told a contact: "My only attempt is to find a way to carry out martyrdom operation with cars without driver, everything is perfect only the programme is left."

She went on to say he wasn't 'planning alone' and that Star had access to the necessary materials and was making devices in his flat.

Ms Whyte said: "It is entirely conceivable that Andy Star's extreme views developed a relatively short time before the events with which we are now concerned."

After the pair were arrested in the early hours of December 19 last year, three air rifles, two Samurai swords, a wine bottle full of sulphuric acid, homemade fireworks, and 'a variety of improvised homemade fuses' were discovered at Star's property, Ms Whyte said.

The court heard how officers investigating Salah's home discovered gunpowder and a 'viable pyrotechnic fuse'.

The pair both deny preparing an act of terrorism.