A woman who wrote jihadi poetry using the pen name “Lyrical Terrorist” has had her terrorism conviction quashed by the Appeal Court.

Three senior judges said the jury at Samina Malik’s trial last year had been confused and her conviction for possessing items of use to terrorists was unsafe.

The Crown Prosecution Service indicated that it would not seek a retrial.

Miss Malik, 24, from Southall, west London, became the first woman convicted under terrorism legislation since 2001 when she was found guilty of possessing jihadi propaganda in December last year.

Her conviction, under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000, was widely condemned as a “thought crime” by commentators and Muslim community leaders.

But it became inevitable that she would be cleared of the crime in February when the Appeal Court quashed the convictions of five men under section 58 and effectively rewrote the Terrorism Act.

The court ruled then that propagandist or theological material - no matter how extreme - could not be considered of practical use to terrorists.

Of 21 items found in Miss Malik’s possession, 14 were propaganda items. However, she also possessed documents including The Terrorists Handbook, The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook, and operator manuals for firearms and anti-tank weapons.

Miss Malik, a shop assistant working air-side at Heathrow airport, was arrested by police investigating the associates of Sohail Qureshi who had been detained en route to Islamabad in possession of £9,000 cash and military clothing and equipment.

Detectives discovered that Qureshi, 30, who is now serving four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to terror charges, had been in e-mail contact with Miss Malik, who had given him details of security arrangements at the airport. The jury in Miss Malik's case was not told of her link with Qureshi.

Miss Malik had also penned gruesome poetry in chatrooms praising the beheading of hostages in Iraq. On the back of a till receipt she scribbled: "The desire within me increases everyday to go for martyrdom."

She was given a nine-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months. But Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice, presiding at the Appeal Court, said her conviction was now unsafe.

“The jury was required to consider not only documents which were capable of being of practical utility for a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, but a large number of documents that were not,” the judge said.

“We consider that there was scope for the jury to have become confused.”

Sue Hemming, of the CPS, said it had been right to bring the original prosecution against Miss Malik.

“Taking into account the time Miss Malik spent on remand before her first trial, and the likely non-custodial sentence she would receive upon conviction in a retrial, we have decided not to seek a retrial on those manuals,” she said.

“Miss Malik was not prosecuted for her poetry. She was prosecuted for possessing documents that could provide practical assistance to terrorists.”

Scotland Yard also insisted it had been right to prosecute Miss Malik: “Samina Malik was arrested in connection with an investigation by Counter Terrorism Command. During a search of her home officers found a number of documents, including terror-training manuals, which constituted criminal offences. When material of this nature is discovered it is the duty of the police to pursue lines of inquiry and gather evidence.”

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