RICHARD Reid, the British “shoe bomber” who tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jet with hidden explosives, was sentenced to life by a US court yesterday. During a highly charged 90-minute hearing in Boston’s US District Court, Reid declared his loyalty to Osama bin Laden and had to be wrestled from the room.

Reid, 29, stared defiantly at ten crew members from the flight, who had given emotional descriptions of the terror that he had caused.

After he was sentenced, the powerfully built 6ft 2in man was wrestled out of court by six US marshals, shouting: “You’ll meet your Lord and I’ll meet mine. Thanks for nothing.”

Sporting a goatee beard, collar-length hair and beige prison fatigues, and speaking in a South London accent, Reid said: “I admit my actions. I swore my life to Sheikh Osama bin Laden and to Islam. Your Government has killed two million innocent children in Iraq. Your Government has sponsored the rape and torture of prisoners in Egypt and Turkey and Syria and Jordan with their money and their weapons.

“I don’t see what I have done as equivalent to rape and torture and the murder of two million children. OK? I put my trust in Allah totally. He will destroy those who wish to oppress the people of Allah.”

Reid was the first person caught in an act of terrorism after the September 11 attacks. He was overpowered by passengers and crew on board American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001. He had repeatedly tried to light fuse wire attached to plastic explosive hidden in the soles of his shoes. The plane, which had 183 passengers and 14 crew on board, landed in Boston under escort from fighter jets. Reid admitted eight charges in October.

Cristina Jones, one of the flight attendants who tackled Reid, told the court: “I was a 5ft 2in woman wrestling with a 6ft 2in man alone. I grabbed him around the shoulders and neck, he bit me on the hand. The pain was so fierce.”

Judge William Young, who gave Reid three life sentences, five others totalling 110 years, and a $2 million fine, said he had struggled to understand why Reid had tried to kill so many people, adding: “You are not a warrior, you are a terrorist. We hunt them down one by one.”

After the verdict, Reid’s father, Robin, said: “I blame myself for not being there when he was growing up.

“I was in prison when I should have been there,” Robin Reid told the BBC. “I will try to visit him, but with my record I may not get a visa. I will have to just write to him and hope that he knows I love him.”

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