A British teenager who had converted to Islam was found guilty on Thursday of having planned to behead a soldier in London, mimicking the brutal beheading of soldier Lee Rigby in 2013 by two Muslim terrorists on London streets in broad daylight.
The convert, 19-year-old Brusthom Ziamani, was arrested last August while in possession of a 12-inch knife and a hammer, which he had wrapped in a black Islamic flag, reports Reuters.
In the trial since, it was revealed that he had researched army cadet barracks in the city and that he was likely heading to an army base when he was arrested for preparing terrorist acts.
"Ziamani was an impressionable young man who became radicalized then rapidly developed an extremist, violent mindset," said Commander Richard Walton of London police's Counter Terrorism Command. "Over a series of months he ultimately developed a desire to carry out a terrorist attack on British soldiers."
The teen terrorist will be sentenced on March 20, after it was revealed in the hearing that Ziamani had grown close with the banned group al Muhajiroun, which is led by one of the leading Islamists in the UK, Anjem Choudary.
Ziamani had praised Michael Adebolajo, one of the two terrorists who brutally murdered Lee Rigby, as was revealed during the hearing.
He also had been arrested once before by counter-terror officers after posting radical messages on social media sites. During that arrest he admitted to police that if he could, he would harm UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
The UK raised its terrorist level to "severe" last August, the second-highest in the scale which signifies a highly likely probability of an imminent attack.