A teacher who tried to create an "army of children" to carry out terror attacks in the UK has been banned from teaching for life. Umar Haque had left some children needing long-term support after his lessons which included horrific videos of people being beheaded and youngsters being made to reenact knife attacks on police during role play exercises.
A court was previously told how he wanted the 11 to 14-year-olds to help him attack Heathrow Airport, the Queen's Guard, Big Ben and other London sites after becoming 'obsessed' with the 2017 Westminster Bridge attack. He was jailed for life at the Old Bailey with a minimum term of 25 years after being convicted of terror offences five years ago.
Now he has been struck off the teaching register after a misconduct hearing was told how he had faced the charges along with three co-defendants, and was subsequently convicted of offences under the Terrorism Act 2006. A panel was told how over a two-month period between March to May 2017, the then 25-year-old planned a variety of differing styles of attack with either the direct or indirect assistance of his associates.
