Bolton man sentenced to two years and three months after police found incriminating documents on computer memory stick

A man who kept a recipe for a deadly poison and documents about how to make bombs has been jailed for two years and three months.

Asim Kausar, 25, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, kept the information on a computer memory stick that contained details about the toxin ricin, assassination and torture techniques and instructions for making improvised explosive devices.

The documents were entitled Improvised Munitions Handbook and Unconventional Warfare Devices and Techniques.

The information came to light only after Kausar's family suffered a burglary, when Kauser's father handed the memory stick to police so officers could view CCTV images of the break-in recorded on the device.

Kauser told police he had downloaded the information out of "curiosity and a thirst for knowledge".

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing at Manchester crown court to four counts of collecting a record of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism between 2009 and 2011.

The prosecution accepted the defendant had not disseminated the information and had not put it to any practical use. There was also no evidence to suggest Kausar had any links to terrorists.

Sentencing him, Judge Andrew Gilbart QC said: "I accept that all of this material is available on the internet and can be bought from retailers such as Amazon and I accept some of it is out of date.

"But that makes them no less dangerous or any less useful to a person committing an act of terrorism."

Riel Karmy-Jones, prosecuting, said the defendant had "scoured the internet" between January 2009 and his arrest last year for information on the mujahideen. The information downloaded ran into thousands of pages.

Also contained in the documents was a letter written by Kausar that said: "I want to fight jihad for Allah."

The prosecutor said: "In the letter he also asked a series of questions - whether he would be able to fight and whether his martyrdom would be accepted."

When his bedroom was searched, officers found what appeared to be a "shopping list" of munitions, she said.

Prices were marked down next to entries of various weapons and ammunition.

Police also seized Kauser's mobile phone, which contained a photograph of him posing with a rifle. The image was believed to have been taken in Pakistan.