Paying more attention to substance abuse could predict or prevent radicalisation, a study has concluded.

The research suggested terror attacks are carried out by “psychologically disturbed young men” who sought out radicalism as a form of self-help.

According to the findings, the attackers had a history of violence due to substance abuse, had acted alone, had no help from a radical group and died as a result of their actions.

The study, conducted by international security lecturer Dr Lewis Herrington from Loughborough University, looked at six incidents – including the Westminster Bridge attack by Khalid Masood in 2017, and the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in 2013 by Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo.

Dr Herrington found that paying closer attention to Masood’s regular cocaine and alcohol use, Adebolajo and Adebowale’s chronic drug use, and Berlin Market attacker Anis Amri’s alcohol consumption since the age of 13, could have provided intelligence services with “helpful indicators” to prevent the attacks.

The study concluded that from a population of 52 lone-actor terrorists across Europe between 2012 and 2017, at least 75% had a history of chronic substance abuse.

Research also found that Muslim communities which introduce the 12-step recovery programme for addiction could help prevent vulnerable members seeking Islamic fundamentalism.

Dr Herrington said: “Fundamentalism provides a structurally equivalent means of recovery from addiction as the widely recognised 12-step programme.

“However, it is a programme that inadvertently directs a minority of vulnerable men along a pathway towards isolation, obsession, resentment and finally martyrdom, rather than sobriety.

“Based on our understanding of addiction, isolation leads to extreme feelings of self-pity, guilt, shame and remorse.”

Dr Herrington continued: “This in turn may trigger suicidal thoughts within Islamic fundamentalists who are unable to commit suicide due to newly established religious beliefs.

“Our six case studies were not exceptional, and some attacks may have been prevented if the perpetrators had been screened for addiction.

“The case of Khalid Masood is especially alarming, and there are almost certainly many others like him.”

He added: “Improved knowledge of the connectivity between addiction and suicide terrorism may provide us with a new working framework within which to help prevent future attacks.”

Anjem Choudary, Britain’s most high-profile Islamist preacher whose followers have been linked to numerous militant plots across the world, has been found guilty of inviting support for Islamic State.

Choudary, 49, was convicted at London’s Old Bailey court of using online lectures and messages to encourage support for the banned group which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Notorious in Britain where the tabloids denounce him as a hate preacher, he is also well-known abroad, making regular TV appearances in the wake of attacks by Islamist militants to blame Western foreign policy for targeting Muslims.

Prosecutors said that in postings on social media, Choudary and his close associate Mizanur Rahman, 33, had sought to validate the “caliphate” declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said Muslims had a duty to obey or provide support to him.

In one hour-long speech, Choudary set out the requirements for a legitimate caliphate under Islam and why he believed the Islamic State met those criteria.

Both men, who had denied the terrorism charges and claimed the case was politically motivated, were found guilty last month but their convictions could not be reported until Tuesday for legal reasons. They are due to be sentenced in September and could face a jail sentence of up to 10 years each.

Choudary, the former head of the now banned organisation al-Muhajiroun, became infamous for praising the men responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Despite his often controversial comments and refusal to condemn attacks by Islamists such as the London 2005 bombings, Choudary has always denied any involvement in militant activity and had never been previously charged with any terrorism offence.

Rahman served two years in jail for encouraging followers to kill British and American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq during a protest in 2006.

BREEDING GROUND FOR MILITANTS

Al-Muhajiroun has been regarded as a breeding ground for militants since it was founded in the late 1990s by Syrian-born Islamist cleric Omar Bakri, who was banished from Britain in 2005, and was banned under anti-terrorist laws in 2010.

Michael Adebolajo, one of the men who hacked to death British soldier Lee Rigby on a London street in 2013, had attended protests Choudary had organised.

Last year, the trial of a teenage Muslim convert found guilty of plotting to behead a soldier in London was told he had fallen in with al-Muhajiroun.

The group’s influence is said to extend far beyond Britain. Those connected to it include Abu Hamza al-Masri, jailed for life in the United States last year for terrorism-related offences.

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman who shot and killed a soldier in Canada’s capital and then stormed parliament in 2014, followed Choudary on Twitter, although the preacher told Reuters at the time he had no links to him.

Both Choudary and Rahman say they abide by a “covenant of security” which forbids Muslims from carrying out attacks in non-Muslim lands where their lives and wellbeing are protected.

“We’re living in a global community and no doubt Muslims around the world who have their eye on what’s happening in Syria and Iraq or want to know about the sharia (law) will come across us at one point or another,” Choudary told Reuters in 2014.

“That does not mean that we’re encouraging people to carry out any acts of terrorism.”