An inmate at a high-security jail is accused of trying to murder the prison’s imam after obtaining a knife behind bars, a court has heard.

Ahmed Ali Alid, 47, is accused of the attempted murder of Roderic Vassie in an incident at HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire on August 8 last year.

Westminster Magistrates Court heard Alid, a Moroccan national, is accused of having a knife and using it to “slice” the top of Mr Vassie’s head before attempting to stab him five times.

Alid is also accused of inflicting actual bodily harm on prison guard Sarah Mitchell on October 21 last year, after he had been moved to HMP Wakefield.

Alid, who was charged following a Counter Terrorism Policing North East investigation, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to face the charges for the first time.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram sent the case to the Old Bailey for a hearing on April 17.

Alid, from Hartlepool, did not indicate any pleas to the charges of attempted murder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon in a prison.

“The defendant was a serving prisoner at HMP Full Sutton,” set out prosecutor Sally-Anne Russell.

“The first incident is that, on August 8, he attacked the imam in the prison using a sharp weapon.”

She said it is alleged Alid “sliced the top of his head with the weapon and then attempted to stab him a further five times to the head and neck area”.

Ms Russell said the alleged attack on Ms Mitchell happened when she opened his cell door at HMP Wakefield.

Alid appeared for the court hearing on a videolink from HMP Wakefield and he remains in custody.

An inquiry into the way prisons deal with convicted terrorists is being launched by the independent terror watchdog amid concerns of growing radicalisation behind bars.

Jonathan Hall QC said there had been a “steady drumbeat” of terror attacks on prison officers while other inmates were coming under the influence of “high status” terrorist prisoners.

Mr Hall, the Government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said that if terrorist activity was taking place in jails then it had to be dealt with.

“There has been a steady drumbeat over recent years of terrorist attacks against prison officers, and an increasing number of individuals who may well have formed their terrorist intent in prison under the influence of high status terrorist prisoners,” he told The Times.

“If terrorism exists (in prison) then it ought to be dealt with. We need scrutiny of how prisons operate to either contain, or worse encourage, terrorism.”

His comments follow a series of high-profile cases, including the 2019 London Bridge attack when Usman Khan, a terrorist prisoner out on licence, stabbed two people to death.

Khairi Saadallah, who was given a whole life sentence earlier this month for murdering three men in a terror attack in a Reading park, had been befriended by a radical preacher while serving an earlier prison term.

Last year Brusthom Ziamani, who was serving a 19-year sentence for plotting to behead a soldier, was convicted of attempted murder for trying to hack an officer to death in the maximum security Whitemoor jail.

Mr Hall said that he had been amazed at the way terrorist prisoners were looked up to by other inmates.

“I find it astonishing that someone should go to prison for plotting a terrorist atrocity and the concern is not that they themselves are at risk of attack, like a paedophile is often at risk of attack because prisoners generally say what they’ve done is terrible,” he said.

“Terrorists automatically achieve a sort of status.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman told The Times that they had trained more than 29,000 prison officers to better spot signs of extremism, increased the number of specialist counter-terrorism staff, and would separate the most subversive prisoners where necessary.

“Our tough measures to stop extremists spreading their poisonous ideologies in prison have been stepped up,” the spokesman said.

“We ended the automatic early release of terrorists and our new legislation means they will also face tougher sentences and monitoring on release.”

Read more: Serving inmates convicted of terrorist murder plot against prison officer

Britain’s youngest terrorist – who plotted to murder police officers in Australia on Anzac Day – can be freed from jail, the Parole Board has ruled.

The 20-year-old, from Blackburn, Lancashire, who can only be identified as RXG, sent encrypted messages instructing an Australian jihadist to launch attacks during a 2015 parade.

He was jailed for life in October 2015 after admitting inciting terrorism overseas.

In a document detailing the decision, the Parole Board said: “After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in detention, and the evidence presented at the hearings, the panel was satisfied that RXG was suitable for release.”

At the age of just 14, the teenager took on the role of “organiser and adviser” and suggested beheading or using a car to kill officers during the annual April 25 commemoration of Australians and New Zealanders killed in conflict, which that year marked the centenary of the First World War battle in Gallipoli.

After being recruited online by Islamic State propagandist Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, over nine days RXG sent thousands of messages to 18-year-old Sevdet Besim, instructing him to kill police officers at the remembrance parade in Melbourne.

Australian police were alerted to the plot after British officers discovered material on the teenager’s phone.

The Parole Board cleared him to leave prison at his first review after he became eligible for release in October.

But the body said he will be subject to strict licence conditions, including having to live at a designated address, wearing an electronic tag and attending supervision appointments as well as adhering to restrictions on his movements, contacting people and using technology.

This plan is considered “robust enough to manage RXG in the community”, according to the decision papers.

The Parole Board said it could only direct release if it was “satisfied that it was no longer necessary for the protection of the public that RXG remained confined in prison”.

Two hearings took place, in September and earlier this month, before the decision was made, during which RXG said he hoped he would be freed.

As well as hearing evidence from RXG, the panel also considered submissions from his lawyer, probation officer, other officials, an imam, psychologists and psychiatrists.

According to the Parole Board document, at the time of his offending “risk factors” he displayed included “not coping well with feelings of anger, being manipulative, not being open and honest with people, his lack of maturity, obsessional behaviour, the influence on him of associates, unhelpful beliefs and extremist views, his radicalisation and his affiliation with ISIS”.

He was diagnosed with autism in 2017 and while behind bars has worked to “address his offending behaviour, his understanding of Islam and to develop his level of maturity”.

The document said witnesses had described the “considerable progress that had been made” and had recommended RXG be released, adding: “No one at the hearing considered there to be a need for further time within the custodial estate.”

His identity will remain a secret for the rest of his life after a High Court ruling last year.

Granting RXG lifelong anonymity, Dame Victoria Sharp said identifying him was likely to cause him “serious harm” and it was therefore necessary for the rare step – taken in only a small number of cases.

Only a handful of similar orders have been made, including those granted to Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger, and child killer Mary Bell.

A Somali man has been jailed for having a stash of Islamic State propaganda.

Abdirahman Mohamed, of Shadwell Drive in Northolt, west London, had been found guilty after an Old Bailey trial of eight charges of possessing a document or record for terrorist purposes and cleared of one count of disseminating a terrorist publication.

Police seized two laptops, a mobile phone and a USB memory stick after searching his home in July 2017.

Officers had found electronic copies of the IS magazine as well as other documents including “safety and security guidelines for Lone Wolf Mujahideen”, the court heard.

The unemployed 42-year-old was sentenced at the Old Bailey to a total of two years and three months’ imprisonment.

He was also ordered to pay a £140 victim surcharge and all the items are to be destroyed.

Prosecutor Kelly Brocklehurst had said: “It is not the Crown’s case that the defendant personally engaged in, or was about to engage in, violence to kill or maim people in a political, ideological or religious cause.

“Rather the Crown say he knowingly possessed a number of documents that the Crown say are the kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”