London: A British court on Friday sentenced a teenager to 22 years in prison for plotting an attack against a soldier inspired by the 2013 murder of Lee Rigby by Islamist militants in London.
Brusthom Ziamani, 19, was detained in August 2014 carrying a 12-inch knife, a hammer and a black Islamist flag in his rucksack.
Police said they were alerted to his intentions after he showed his weapons to his ex-girlfriend.
"The defendant... would have carried out the intention he so graphically expressed to his ex-girlfriend just a few hours before," judge Timothy Pontius told the court.
The judge said Ziamani would have to serve at least two-thirds of the sentence before being eligible for parole. A jury at England's Old Bailey central criminal court in London last month convicted him of "preparing an act of terrorism".
Ziamani's trial heard that he became radicalised by members of extremist organisation Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and had researched the location of army cadet bases.
Ziamani's lawyer, Naeem Mian, said his client was not an "entrenched extremist" and had been led astray by people "more sophisticated and mature" than him.
He had previously been arrested in June 2014 on an unrelated matter, and police found a ripped-up letter in his trousers in which he wrote about attacking a British soldier.
Ziamani claimed he was only "ranting and raging about the situation in Muslim countries" and that his postings were an attempt to "fit in" with the ALM group.
He said he was carrying the weapons as protection. Following his conviction, Commander Richard Walton from the London police force's Counter Terrorism Command said the case highlighted the threats currently faced by Britain.
"Ziamani was an impressionable young man who became radicalised, then rapidly developed an extremist, violent mindset," he said.
"Over a series of months he ultimately developed a desire to carry out a terrorist attack on British soldiers," he added.