A 16-year-old Spanish gypsy was sentenced to six years in a juvenile detention centre today after he admitted helping to steal and transport the dynamite used in the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people.

The boy was the first person to be tried in connection with the attacks on four commuter trains on March 11, which have been linked to al-Qaeda. Some 1,900 people were wounded in Spain's worst terrorist outrage.

The juvenile is nicknamed El Gitanillo - the Little Gypsy - but has been identified only by his initials G.M. because he is a minor. He made only a brief appearance in the armoured basement courtroom in Madrid’s High Court building.

Judge Jose Maria Vazquez Honrubia asked the defendant if he agreed with the charges and the six-year term proposed by the prosecutor. He replied simply:"Yes." The judge then sentenced him to six years in a juvenile detention centre followed by five more years of supervision.

The public was separated from the court by bullet-proof glass. The youth, with his mother sitting next to him, was hidden from view by a screen.

The case came to trial a relatively swift eight months after the attacks because the suspect is a minor. Most of the 30 suspects under arrest or court supervision are Moroccans, said by the judge to be involved in an Islamic holy war against the West.

El Gitanillo, however, had no political motive. Born to Gypsy parents in 1987, he is believed to have been dealing hashish in his home town of Aviles, in northwest Spain, since his early teens before falling in with a group of drug-dealers who also sold stolen dynamite from local mines.

He was accused of having knowingly helped to transport some 20 kg of dynamite by bus to Madrid, where he transferred the material to contacts in a bar.

One of those contacts, investigators said, was Jamal Ahmidan, one of seven people who blew themselves up in a police raid in the Madrid suburb of Leganes during a police raid on April 3.

Judicial sources say the 16-year-old was paid around 1,000 euros (£700) for his help.

In late February, the teen is alleged to have gone to a mine with another suspect, former miner Emilio Suarez, who, it is alleged, then met Ahmidan and two other suspects, Abdenabi Kounjaa and Mohamed Oulad Akcha at his home two days later. Suarez is understood to have then sent his young accomplice back to Madrid on March 4, a week before the attacks, where he again is alleged to have met up with Akcha.

On the morning of March 11, the bombers placed bags containing the explosives on four trains which they set off via mobile phone within minutes of each other at three packed railway stations -- Atocha, a major interchange in central Madrid, Pozo and Santa Eugenia.

The Spanish Government of the day, under conservative Jose Maria Aznar, initially blamed the blasts on ETA, the Basque separatist group which was caught red-handed last December plotting to blow up a mainline train. Evidence swiftly emerged, however, fingering radical Muslims seeking to punish Spain for supporting the US-led war in Iraq.

The evidence included a tape containing Koranic verses found in a lorry containing dozens of detonators outside the station from where the deadly trains left. A video was later discovered containing a claim of responsibility in the name of Al-Qaeda.

Three days after the blasts the Government lost power as the Socialist Party secured an unexpected general election win. Many voters turned against the rightwing Popular Party, which had looked set to win the poll easily, amid allegations it tried to mislead the electorate by insisting ETA was responsible for an act of terror which brought more than 10 million Spaniards out on the streets in a March 12 show of solidarity.

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