Fish and chip shop boss, 31, and his alleged accomplice, 22, ‘planned a Christmas massacre by building a remote control car bomb to detonate from a laptop’

The Daily Mail has details of the Chesterfield/Sheffield terror plot from today’s remand hearing.

Picture left, Farhad Salah to the left and Andy Star to the right. Court sketches are not meant to flatter so I will reserve judgment on whether Salah really is aged 22 until I see a photograph of him in different circumstances. If the court sketch is accurate then he either had an uphill paper round, or he entered the country under a ‘shave the children’ scam. 

A chip shop owner terror suspect and his friend appeared in court today accused of planning to build a remote control car bomb to detonate from a laptop for an alleged Christmas massacre.

Andy Star, 31, and Farhad Salah, 22, were arrested on December 19 in a series of early morning raids in the Chesterfield and Sheffield areas of South Yorkshire. Today both appeared in custody at Westminster Magistrates Court via video link from Leeds Magistrates Court. The two men, both Kurdish Iraqis, were dressed in prison issue tracksuits. (They) spoke only confirm their name, age and address, and are both accused of  a single terror count.

They allegedly planned to build an IED that would be placed inside a driverless car, with a laptop controlling the vehicle and detonating the device. 

Prosecutor Thomas Halpin said: ‘Both are jointly charged with a single offence of preparation to commit acts of terrorism. . . This is a case in which the Crown say both defendants were researching, developing and manufacturing chemicals to make explosive substances so they could be used in an IED with a view to committing acts in the UK.’

The court heard that they are accused of possessing ‘low explosive black powder’.

Jordan Batteson, 25, who lives near the Mermaid Fish Bar, said: ‘He was a really nice guy, really friendly. I used to go in there to get my chips. He gave the staff copies of the Koran.’ 

A close friend of Star said: ‘I can’t believe it … I don’t know what happened, he was a nice guy … I am sure he is innocent’.

The men did not enter pleas at the hearing.