A Pakistani student who ran a terrorist cell recruiting disaffected Muslims from northern England to join a holy war against Coalition forces in Afghanistan was warned by a judge yesterday that he faces six years in jail.

Abdul Rahman, 25, once a sales assistant for Primark, acted as a “vital link”, putting the ideology of extreme Islamic philosophy into practice on the remote battlefields close to Pakistan’s northwest border.

He is the first person in Britain to be convicted of a charge of disseminating terrorist information. He is also the first to be convicted of helping another to breach a Home Office control order.

He has been told that he can expect to be jailed today for six years. He changed his plea to admit an array of terrorism charges on the morning of his trial after the Crown agreed to withdraw the most serious charge of assisting another to commit or prepare a terrorist act, which carries a maximum life sentence.

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Instead, he admitted possessing articles for the purpose of terrorism, dissemination of terrorist propaganda and aiding or abetting the breach of a control order.

Rahman, his floppy hair neatly barbered and wearing a blue suit and tie, appeared uninterested in proceedings and, at one point, Judge Clement Goldstone rebuked him for grinning and appearing to laugh inappropriately in the dock.

Parmjit Cheema, for the prosecution, told Manchester Crown Court that Rahman came to Britain in September 2004 to study biotechnology at the University of Dundee. He left for Manchester by train without attending a single lecture or tutorial.

He was at the centre of a small “cell” of radicalised young Muslim men, some British-born, largely based at a council house in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. At least one of their number travelled to Afghanistan where he sent home a dispatch encouraging others to follow on.

Ms Cheema said: “What this group, particularly this defendant, were involved in was scouting, recruiting and encouraging others to join their philosophy of extreme jihad, or holy war. Their interest was the perceived assault of Islam in Afghanistan and the need to provide resources and fighters for that conflict.

“In essence, they were a group or cell of young men who all espoused a radical extreme jihadi philosophy that says nonbelievers are legitimate targets, especially if they are engaged in conflicts with the true believers of Islam, like the Taleban and residual insurgents.”

In March last year Rahman was among a group who took part in military manoeuvres in Little Langdale, in the Lake District. Video footage shows a figure running ahead of a vehicle through snowy terrain apparently acting as an “advance Chechnyan mujahidin”. Released by Greater Manchester Police yesterday, the film showed Rahman singing jihadi songs and giving a commentary as several figures crawl on their bellies through snow as if practising a mujahidin commando raid. The clips were found when police raided Rahman’s home.

In August last year Aslam Awan, 25, a Pakistani-born friend of Rahman who lived at the house in Cheetham Hill, returned home, ostensibly to join the Taleban.

Officers from Manchester’s Coun-ter-Terrorism Unit found a hand-written five-page letter from Awan containing a host of barely disguised references to the fighting including a reference to “mosquitoes”, believed to be Apache helicopters. An expert witness concluded that Awan, now subject to an exclusion order, had taken part in at least two skirmishes with coalition forces and was acting “middle man in the recruiting pipeline”.

In January this year one of the cell, who can be referred to only as AK, was made subject to a Home Office control order. He was told that he was forbidden to leave the country but within hours he had adopted a westernised appearance and travelled to a Midlands airport, where he boarded a flight for Lahore.

Rahman helped him by emptying his HSBC bank accounts of £480 late at night from a branch in Cheetham Hill to pay for the £420 fare.

Ms Cheema said that although Rahman was not himself preparing to execute acts of terrorism, he played an important role in scouting for, recruiting and supporting others to do so. “They are an essential and a vital link in the process of putting ideology into practice,” she said.

Another 33-year-old man responsible for radicalising others is subject to a control order and cannot be named.

Earlier Ms Cheema highlighted excerpts from a vast quantity of radical material that was later discovered in Rahman’s house. Most celebrated martyrdom with one imploring: “Rather than raise cowardly disco boys, raise brave crusaders.”

Another document was entitled How Can I Train Myself for Jihad?, described as a terrorist’s handbook, which described military training as a Muslim obligation.

The court was told that Rahman spent much of his money on all-weather gear, so-called field uniforms, which were understood to have been sent on to Pakistan. Officers also found a Jiffy bag containing combat knives, survival kit and a phone, which he planned to send to AK in Peshawar.

Ms Cheema said that Rahman was the first person in Britain to be convicted of helping another person to breach a Home Office control order by paying the air fare for a man despite a ban on him leaving the country. He is also the first to be convicted of disseminating terrorist information after he was arrested in possession of a letter from the Muslim fighter at the front calling the faithful to arms.

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