AN ISLAMIST fanatic hatched a terrorist plot to kidnap a Muslim British soldier enjoying a night out and behead him "like a pig", a court heard today.

Parviz Khan, who has pleaded guilty to charges connected to the plan, planned to release footage of the killing on the internet, a jury at Leicester Crown Court was told.

Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting two other men accused of offences under the Terrorism Act, said Khan was not standing trial because he had pleaded guilty to the charges he faces a fortnight ago.

Outlining the plot to kill a soldier, Mr Rumfitt told the jury Khan hoped to kidnap a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham's Broad Street entertainment quarter with the help of drug dealers.

Mr Rumfitt added: "He would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig.

"This atrocity would be filmed and the film released to cause panic and fear within the British armed forces and the public."

Mr Rumfitt also told the jury Khan, 37, from Birmingham, was at the centre of a terrorist "cell" or network based in the Birmingham area.

The court heard Khan was active in gathering items, including computer hard drives, range-finders and night-vision equipment, to be sent to Pakistan for use by terrorists operating near the Afghan border.

Mr Rumfitt added: "The prosecution says Parviz Khan is a fanatic, who has the most violent and extreme views.

"He was enraged by the idea there were Muslim soldiers in the British Army, some of them Muslims from The Gambia in West Africa."

The jury was also told Khan wanted another man, Gambian national Basiru Gassama, to help select the target of the soldier plot.

Gassama, 30, also from Birmingham, has also pleaded guilty after failing to tell the authorities of the plan to kill a soldier.

The court heard Gassama never came up with the details of an individual target for Khan and the plan "lay dormant" after July 2006.

But Khan remained determined and in November 2006 he revived his interest in the plot.

Jurors were told to disregard previous media coverage of the kidnap plot, published after the defendants were arrested in January 2007.

Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "It may be that the allegation about the plans to kidnap and kill a British soldier rang a bell with some of you.

"This information should not have been made public at that stage.

"It seems to have been leaked to the press, who had a field day."

The trial continues.