A man who promoted an Islamic terrorist group and acted on his extremist views has been convicted.

Shehroz Iqbal, 29, from Ilford, was found guilty on Tuesday (October 20) over counts of sending terrorism material on social media and encouraging terrorism.

He was arrested on April 6 shortly after the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command found he shared a propaganda video of Islamist group Daesh on his Facebook page.

The court heard that the video, which featured an image of a dead body, was viewed more than 200 times on the defendant’s Facebook page.

He was charged the next day with dissemination of terrorist material and was taken into custody, where he first appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 8.

When detectives analysed his phone, footage was also uploaded to a Whatsapp group chat of himself in central London near the Royal Festival Hall saying the words ‘attack, attack’ – the inference being Iqbal was encouraging others to carry out an attack at various locations.

Following this discovery, a further indictment of encouragement of terrorism was added on July 27 when he appeared at the Old Bailey for a pre-trial hearing.

Iqbal is scheduled to be sentenced for the offences at the same court on a date to be confirmed.