Aine Davis: Suspected member of Islamic State 'Beatles' cell pleads guilty to terror offences
A man previously suspected of being a member of the so-called Beatles Islamic State cell has pleaded guilty to terrorism offences.
Aine Davis, 39, originally from Hammersmith, west London, was arrested at Luton Airport last August after being deported from Turkey, where he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for membership of IS.
He previously denied charges against him but changed his pleas at a hearing at the Old Bailey today after a failed bid to get the case thrown out.
Davis admitted possession of a firearm contrary to Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and two charges relating to the funding of terrorism, between 2013 and 2014.
He appeared by videolink from Belmarsh prison wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit and was remanded in custody by the judge Mark Lucraft KC ahead of sentencing at the same court on 13 November.
Davis was arrested in Istanbul in November 2015 and has always denied being part of the Beatles cell - named because of the British accents of the group of men who tortured and beheaded western hostages in Syria.
Two members, British nationals El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, are now serving life sentences in US jails.
A third, Mohammed Emwazi, dubbed Jihadi John, who was believed to feature in shocking videos of IS beheadings of a number of captives, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
US prosecutors said Davis travelled with Kotey and he admitted in a Turkish court that he knew Emwazi from a mosque in west London.
A US indictment included Davis as a "co-conspirator" but some of the hostages only mentioned three British members of the gang and prosecutors did not seek his extradition.
Ahead of his planned Old Bailey trial, Davis' lawyers argued the case should be thrown out because he had already been tried and convicted for the same offending.
Mark Summers KC, defending, accused the British authorities of "conniving" with their Turkish counterparts in his deportation in a failed bid by then Home Secretary Priti Patel to arrange his onward extradition to the US.
Prosecutors disputed the defence claims which were rejected by Judge Lucraft and later by the Court of Appeal.
The IS Beatles are thought to have been responsible for the kidnap and holding of more than 20 westerners and the execution of at least seven of them, including Britons David Haines and Alan Henning and American aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
The group caused outrage around the world after releasing videos of the executions of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
None of the charges admitted by Davis, who has previous convictions for possession of drugs and gun possession, relate to the Beatles cell.
They largely relate to evidence that came to light that was uncovered from communications with his then wife, Amal El-Wahabi, 36, with whom he had two children.
She was found guilty of funding terrorism and jailed for 28 months after an Old Bailey trial in 2014 over a plot to smuggle €20,000 to him in Syria, via a friend who hid the money in her underwear.
The firearm charge relates to a photograph of Davis posing with a rifle alongside other fighters, which he sent to El-Wahabi.
