A convicted terrorist from Brighton who planned to shoot a Christian preacher in Hyde Park, in London, has had an appeal against his sentence dismissed at the Court of Appeal.
Edward Little was jailed for planning to attack preacher Hatun Tash, a regular at Speaker’s Corner, but was arrested on his way to buy a gun in south London. He later pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism.
Little, now 23, was originally sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years in December 2023, which was then increased to 24 years in January last year.
Today (Tuesday 25 February), his barrister told the Court of Appeal that his sentence should be reduced, because a shorter jail term would be “more appropriate to the offending”.
But Lord Justice William Davis, Sir Martin Griffiths, known as Mr Justice Griffiths, and Judge Simon Drew dismissed the appeal.
They said that the sentencing judge, Dame Maura McGowan, known as Mrs Justice McGowan, “was entitled to conclude that the deadly use of the gun was very likely”.
Little’s sentencing hearing at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in London, was told that he converted to Islam at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution, in Kent, and at Deerbolt Prison, in Co Durham, after he turned 18.
In 2022, he downloaded extremist propaganda including copies of the al-Qaida publication, Inspire, with Lord Justice William Davis saying today that Little had claimed online that the terrorist organisation had “assigned him as one of their top brothers”.
British-born Little, of Pelham Street, Brighton, had expressed a desire to acquire a gun and planned to kill Ms Tash, whom he described in online chats as an “evil witch”.
Prosecutors also claimed that he planned to kill police officers and soldiers in the area at the time of the attack.
The court heard that Little settled on the plan after rejecting a mass gun attack on the late Queen’s funeral in Westminster.
But he was arrested by armed police while in a taxi to London to buy a gun with £5,000 in cash in September 2022.
Three men were jailed at Inner London Crown Court in November 2023 after admitting being party to a plot to sell Little a gun. It was accepted that they did not know it was for a terror attack.
Tyler King, 21, of Denmark Hill, Lewisham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transfer a prohibited firearm as well as having a prohibited firearm and three counts of having ammunition without lawful authority. He was jailed for 10 years and nine months.
Caleb Wenyeve, 21, of Blidworth Close, Strelley in Nottingham, was jailed for 12 years after also entering a guilty plea to conspiracy to transfer a prohibited firearm.
Reis Forde, 27, also known as Rex, was jailed in 2022 for drug dealing in Brighton. At Inner London Crown Court, he was sentenced to a further 13 years and six months in prison.
He was already in Rochester Prison after being jailed for four years at Hove Crown Court, having been caught with drugs at a flat in Montpelier Road, Brighton, in May 2021.
Before he was jailed in February 2022, Forde also admitted being involved in dealing cocaine in Worthing in March 2020.
The offence took place just three weeks after he was arrested and questioned by police about the drug-related death of a 17-year-old girl at a flat in Hove.
But no charges were brought in relation to the death of Sophie Read in a basement flat in St Aubyns, in Hove.
Today, Tom Godfrey, for Little, told the Court of Appeal that he had not undertaken any “reconnaissance” at Hyde Park and said: “It is not a case in which multiple deaths were risked and were very likely to be caused.”
He added: “I don’t belittle the seriousness of the offending. It was plainly very serious and warrants significant punishment. But that can be met properly by re-categorising this offence to one that is more appropriate to the offending.”
Little, who also has convictions for assault causing grievous bodily harm (GBH), robbery, drug dealing and other offences, did not attend the hearing.
