An MI5 agent was allegedly recruited by a terrorist mastermind in Syria and sent back to Britain in a plot to launch a devastating attack against his handlers.

The agent was recruited by MI5 as an undercover informant within the radical Islamic community and he then travelled to Syria where he became part of a jihadist group.

But he apparently double-crossed his British handlers and returned to London with plans to launch an ‘insider attack’ in the capital.

The Mail on Sunday has been aware of the alleged plot for more than a year but agreed to previous requests from the security services not to publish the story for ‘national security’ reasons.

Parts of the plot were reported in a story in The Mail on Sunday last year, in which we revealed that the jihadist, who has a British passport, had plans to attack Central London and that David Cameron had been briefed about the details.

This newspaper is aware of the man’s identity and further details of the investigation but are not printing them for legal reasons.

A long undercover operation was run by MI5 to try to identify linked individuals who might be travelling back from Syria to launch similar attacks but this investigation has now concluded, meaning we can now report the fact that he was a potential ‘double agent’.

The revelations come as the terror threat in the UK continues to be ‘severe’ but as MI5 faces difficult questions about its tactic of recruiting agents who are known Islamic extremists.

Supporters of Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner known as Jihadi John, have claimed that MI5 harassed him and similar allegations have been made by the family of Michael Adebolajo, one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

The security services refuse to answer such questions because they stick by a strict policy to ‘neither confirm nor deny’ whether individuals have been approached or recruited – a policy they stick to even after suspects have been accused of serious crimes.

However, The Mail on Sunday can disclose that the man worked for MI5 for a period before he decided to travel abroad in 2012.

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One of Lee Rigby’s killers has been moved to another maximum security jail amid fears he was radicalising inmates, a Muslim group says.

Michael Adebolajo was taken from Belmarsh in South East London to Frankland, Co Durham, and is being kept apart in an isolation unit.

He wrote to support group Muslim Prisoners who said: “The guards at Frankland are worse than Belmarsh for treatment of Muslims. This move is deliberate.”

Spokesman Abu Bara, 31, said: “In their eyes, Muslims getting together is conspiracy, just talking to each other is seen as radicalisation.”

The group said that at Belmarsh Adebolajo, 29, was also kept segregated, but talked to inmates when let out to exercise in a cage.

Belmarsh guards are being investigated after Adebolajo lost several teeth while being restrained.

He and Michael Adebowale, 23, were jailed for life last year for hacking to death Drummer Rigby, 25 , as he walked to his barracks in Woolwich, South East London.

The brother of one of Lee Rigby’s murderers said today that the decision to give his sibling a whole life prison sentence was Islamophobic.

Jeremiah Adebolajo believes Michael Adebolajo should not be forced to die behind bars and claims the judge in his Old Bailey trial caved in to ‘pressure’ after ‘gave the public what they wanted’.

Last month Adebolajo, 29, was given a whole-life term, while Michael Adebowale, 22, was jailed for life with a minimum of 45 years.

Adebolajo was given the longest possible sentence because the judge believed he had no hope of rehabilitation, but his brother said today if released he would ‘pose no danger to the public’ and ‘lead a very productive life were he to be released’.

The British-born extremists mowed down Fusilier Rigby in a car before hacking him to death in the street in front of horrified onlookers near Woolwich Barracks in south-east London in May last year.

They both claimed that they were ‘soldiers of Allah’ and were motivated by the plight of Muslims abroad to carry out the killing, and have shown no remorse.

Today Jeremiah Adebolajo, who like his brother is a Muslim convert, told the BBC Radio 5 Live today that his sibling was unfairly treated.

He pointed to the sentencing of Pavlo Lapshyn, who was jailed for 40 years for killing a man and planning to bomb three mosques to start a ‘race war’ in Britain.

‘It seems strange to me that a man can be sentence to (whole) life for the death of one man and another can be sentenced to 40 years for the death of one and the attempted murder of many others,’ he told Victoria Derbyshire.

‘I wonder what the difference is here, aside from the guilty plea, aside from that I see that someone has died in both cases.

‘It seems strange that Justice Sweeney can suggest there is no prospect of rehabilitation for my brother but there is for the Ukrainian man who openly stated he wanted to start a race war

‘Yes (it is Islamophobic). Not only that I think it was trial by the public. There was a lot of public outrage, as could be understood. The death of a soldier in any country would provoke that, but I would suggest that Justice Sweeney was giving in to that pressure’.

During their sentencing last month violence broke out in the Old Bailey dock and the killers began hurling abuse at the judge and fighting with prison guards.

In extraordinary scenes, the two Muslim extremists yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘You (Britain) and America will never be safe’ during their sentencing at the court in Central London.

Shocking: A blood-drenched Michael Adebolajo (pictured) told witnesses in a video his attack on Drummer Rigby was an act of revenge – ‘an eye for an eye’

Justice Sweeney was forced to jail them while they banged on the ceilings of their cells below the courtroom.

The judge said the pair’s behaviour was ‘sickening and pitiless’, and that Adebolajo had no hope of rehabilitation.

‘Your sickening and pitiless conduct was in stark contrast to the compassion and bravery shown by the various women at the scene who tended to Lee Rigby’s body and challenged what you had done and said.’

Jeremiah Adebolajo also said his brother should not have been tried for murder.

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A teacher allegedly ordered a 10-year-old boy to take off his Help for Heroes wristband because it could cause offence.

Tracy Tew was shocked when her son Charlie was put on a report card at Maldon Primary School in Essex after he refused to take off the charity rubber bracelet sold to honour injured soldiers.

Charlie wears the wristband – bought at the Colchester Military Festival – in honour of murdered solider Lee Rigby and service personnel in his family, including his great-granddad and uncle.

Mrs Tew, 38, a domestic service assistant at a hospital, said: ‘We are really proud of Charlie for sticking to his guns. He wanted to keep it on and he didn’t agree with the reasons why he shouldn’t.

The mother of two added: ‘When the teacher said she was worried it was going to offend people, I thought it was disgusting. Our family are up in arms because we are all military minded.

‘With what happened with Lee Rigby, Charlie really wanted to wear a wristband.’

Drummer Rigby, 25, was killed by two Islamic fanatics in Woolwich, south-east London, in May last year. Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, were jailed for the murder last month.

Headteacher Tracy Thornton insisted wearing wristbands is against the school’s jewellery policy.

She said: ‘They are not allowed to wear jewellery, and that includes wristbands, for health and safety reasons because they could get caught.

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A young mother has revealed that soldier killer Michael Adebolajo raped her when she was just 14 years old.

The victim, who is now in her 20s and living in London, said she passed out after Adebolajo drugged her with powerful cannabis, awaking from her stupor to find him on top of her.

‘I have looked in his eyes and seen the evil inside him,’ she told the Sunday Mirror. ‘I opened my eyes and his face was less than an inch from mine. I’ll never forget that moment as long as I live.

‘His teeth were discoloured and wonky. His eyes seemed to be burning. He smirked and his breath smelt foul and was hot on my face.’

Self-styled soldier of Islam Adebolajo was this week convicted alongside Michael Adebowale of the brutal murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was hacked to death in the street close to Woolwich barracks.

Incredibly, just two days before the kiling in May, his rape victim bumped into him in a chance encounter and he tried to force her into his car – the same vehicle used to run down the 25-year-old soldier.

She was only able to get away after pleading with him to let her go. The next she saw of him was on television, clutching a meat cleaver and ranting about why he had murdered Fusilier Rigby.

The shock of it made her confide in her mother for the first time about her rape ordeal at Adebolajo’s hands when she was just a young teenager.

It was the spring of 2001 when the woman, who has chosen to tell her story but wants to remain anonymous, met Adebolajo, then 16, when both were living in Romford, Essex.

Both were among a group of friends who would meet in the local park, and her first impressions of the teenage Adebolajo were of a ‘nice and charming’ youngster. She even once kissed him.

But that judgement was to change after he lured her to his house with a friend to smoke cannabis – which she says she had never tried before.

She remembers how he encouraged her to take deep drags on the potent skunk spliff he had rolled in his bedroom, until she started feeling woozy and passed out.

When she came round she found herself flat on her back on the floor, her trousers and knickers around her ankles, and Adebolajo raping her while his friend watched.

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One day after two Islamic extremists were found guilty of the bestial murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, the BBC thought fit to interview the ‘hate preacher’ who had inspired both of them. At the very least it seems a crass piece of timing, and I’m not surprised that many people have complained.

But the appearance of Anjem Choudary on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday morning did serve to remind us of how pernicious and destructive this man really is. Pressed again and again by presenter John Humphrys, he declined to condemn Lee Rigby’s murder, taking refuge in the barely legal formula that he would not do so while British soldiers were killing innocent Muslims in Afghanistan.

Most people, including many Muslims, will have drawn the conclusion that Choudary has again revealed himself as being beyond the pale of civilisation. He doesn’t have the decency or humanity to say he is sorry that Lee Rigby was hacked to death by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.

Though Choudary was careful not to let slip anything that would incriminate him with the law, he managed to incriminate himself at the bar of public opinion by declaring that he doesn’t believe in democracy. Even the thugs in the British National Party would not admit that.

Choudary believes in sharia law, which is supposedly handed down by Allah, and should be imposed on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In his twisted moral universe, only preachers like himself can interpret Allah. That would give them power to do whatever they liked.

This is fascism. No, it is worse, since at least fascism pretends to reflect the will of the people. Choudary and other Islamist extremists can do what they want because they think they know the will of God. That is exactly what Adebolajo and Adebowale claimed at their trial at the Old Bailey. They had murdered Lee Rigby in Allah’s name.

Such beliefs seem so idiotic, so utterly wicked in fact, that normal minds will struggle to understand what attraction they could possibly have. It seems incredible that a man like Choudary could appeal to any young people in modern Britain.

But he has, of course. Michael Adebolajo first met Choudary in 2005, who with Omar Bakri Mohammed (the so-called ‘Tottenham Ayatollah’) was one of the leaders of the now banned extremist group Al-Muhajiroun.

Bakri, who is no longer resident in Britain, and therefore freer to speak his mind, told BBC One’s Panorama on Thursday night that he was ‘proud’ of what Adebolajo had done.

Choudary was also known to Michael Adebowale. New video footage of a demonstration outside St Paul’s Cathedral last Christmas Eve shows Adebowale claiming that Islam will take over the world even if people hate the religion, with Anjem Choudary also present.

Given what he has done, it remains mystifying that Choudary has escaped prosecution. As a British citizen he can’t be deported, but are the police really correct when they say he hasn’t broken the law?

What is clear is that his message is seized on by many more disaffected young people than the two young men who ended up at the Old Bailey. The authorities warn that we should expect future attacks, and that not every plot can be thwarted. I am afraid we must brace ourselves for further outrages.

The great unanswered question is why Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who were born into decent Christian families, should have acted so barbarously. We must try to understand the reasons for their behaviour.

And here I am going to say something which some people may find hard to accept. There are aspects of recent British and U.S. foreign policy which make the response of young Muslim militants explicable, though not at all defensible.

Look, for example, at America’s appalling record at Guantanamo Bay, where suspected Muslim terrorists, including nine British citizens, have been held without trial since 2002, and in some cases still are. The absence of proper legal procedure has been a shameful betrayal of our values.

Moreover, there is plenty of evidence from the International Red Cross and other reputable organisations that torture was carried out at Guantanamo on a vast scale. Methods of torture included chaining prisoners, beating them, depriving them of food and water, and exposing them to loud noise or extreme temperatures.

Even as I write these words, I find it difficult to believe that these things have been done in our name — or at any rate that of the United States — in recent years.

I am ashamed to say that they have. The terrible truth is that we have sometimes let ourselves sink almost to the inhuman level of the terrorists who want to destroy our civilisation and against whom we went to war.

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A prosecutor outlined the chilling near-decapitation of an unarmed British soldier on a London street, as two men went on trial Friday in connection with the suspected extremist attack.

Prosecutor Richard Whittam told jurors that Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, drove their car directly at Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. They then dragged his body to the middle of the road, where the public could watch, Whittam said.

“They both attacked the motionless body of Lee Rigby,” Whittam said. “He was repeatedly stabbed and it appears it was Michael Adebolajo, the first defendant, who made a serious and almost successful attempt to decapitate Lee Rigby with multiple blows to his neck made with the meat cleaver.”

The two men have pleaded not guilty to murder charges, though jurors were told that both men have admitted possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. The defense will present its case later in the trial.

The two are also accused of attempting to murder a police officer on the same day, and conspiracy to murder a police officer on or before May 22 — the day Rigby was attacked.

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