Excerpts from graphic videos of the beheading of hostages that were found at the homes of two of the alleged 21/7 bomb plot suspects were shown to a jury yesterday.

The films, found during police searches, included the murder in Pakistan of Daniel Pearl, the journalist, and the execution in Iraq of Nick Berg, a contractor.

The grisly footage was spliced together to make homemade compilation films which also featured Islamist rap music, news coverage of the 7/7 bombings in London and the 9/11 attacks in New York and images of Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical former imam of Finsbury Park mosque.

A film that appeared to be of an instructor showing how to construct a suicide bomb vest was also shown.

Mr Justice Fulford, the judge in the 21/7 trial at Woolwich Crown Court, apologised to the jurors that they had to be shown such material.

Alison Morgan, junior prosecuting counsel, guided the jurors through the footage and assured them that they would not see the actual murders.

The films were found at the homes of Yassin Omar and Hussein Osman, two of the six men that are accused of planning to carry out suicide attacks on the London transport network on July 21, 2005.

Miss Morgan told the jury: “I must warn you that some of the images you will see will be unpleasant. The compilation does include footage of beheadings and execution scenes. You have my reassurance you will not see any actual bloodshed. The footage will only show the moments before the execution happens.”

The tape that was played to the court began with a rap video entitled “Dirty Kuffar” [Unbeliever], in which a masked gunman sings over the images of world leaders. It showed three masked men standing behind a man who was kneeling on the ground. A figure wearing a red headscarf began chanting and images of fighting were screened.

The film was stopped as the man put a knife to the throat of the kneeling figure. Miss Morgan said: “He then goes on to cut the throat of the victim. The masked man then dismembers the body of the victim and holds it up to the camera.”

Another piece of film showed a man lying in a ditch in a battlefield as a figure in combat clothing approached. Miss Morgan said: “He cuts his throat. The victim is then seen on the ground bleeding. He is then beheaded and the dismembered head is held up to the camera.”

The tape, which was found at the home of Mr Omar in New Southgate, North London, ended with footage recorded from BBC News 24 on the afternoon of July 7.

A second clip of film taken from a CD found at the home of Mr Osman in Stockwell, South London, was also played to the court. The CD was stored in a folder that was labelled “executions”.

The compilation showed short extracts from footage of the deaths of Mr Pearl, Mr Berg and other people including an American engineer, an Egyptian man and a Korean hostage.

Other CDs at the flat contained footage of 9/11, a clip from a documentary relating to Osama bin Laden and a 42-minute speech from bin Laden that had been downloaded from the internet.

Clips of film from the school siege in Beslan, Russia, were mixed with scenes of Abu Hamza outside his mosque and a demonstration outside Belmarsh prison that was staged after the arrest of the cleric.

The voice of the extremist preacher was heard in the courtroom when part of an audio-tape found at Mr Omar’s flat was played. The recording was of a sermon by Abu Hamza in which he said: “One year in the battlefield is better than 70 years of worship.”

Mr Omar, 26, Mr Osman, 28, Muktah Said Ibrahim, 29, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Adel Yahya, 24, deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.