Accused men grew up in British suburbs

His father worked as a catering company supervisor and his mother worked for Royal Mail.

They lived in a large house in Crawley with Akbar's two brothers and sister.

Akbar went to Brunel University where he was studying multimedia but spent little time at lectures.

He secretly "married" a non-Muslim and they set up home in a studio flat in Uxbridge. She has since left him.

The flat was bugged by police as members of the group spent more time there.

He was recorded discussing blowing up a nightclub because no one could say "slags dancing around" were innocent.

Akbar told the court he was misled by Khyam and did not mean the things he said to impress more radical friends.

Waheed Mahmood, 35, a married father of four from Crawley, was the oldest of the group.

He worked for Transco at its Brighton depot installing gas meters and was able to get plans of gas and electricity systems.

It was at his impressive house in Pakistan that supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar said he heard the plot being hatched.

He encouraged the younger members of the group to bring jihad to Britain, the court was told.

He had been living in Pakistan in recent years and was declared bankrupt on returning to the UK. It is not known where he got the money to build his home in Pakistan.

He liked to present himself as an authority on Islam and wrote a book about the history of the Prophet Mohammed.

He was the only defendant not to go into the witness box to give evidence.

Barely concealing his contempt, he refused to stand when the judge, Sir Michael Astill, entered the court.

His gesture soon became lost on the jury when Sir Michael decided the jury and defendants should leave court before him.

Anthony Garcia, 25, changed his name from Rahman Adam to help him as an aspiring model, he claimed.

He was brought up as part of a large family of Algerians, coming to east London from Africa when he was five.

He told the court he was a rap and basketball fan who was thought of as an Ali G-type figure when he was a teenager.

But he later found people began to respect him after he started raising money for Muslims in Kashmir. He became a prolific fundraiser for jihad.

In 2002, when he was working for Group 4 Security, he wanted to get military training in Pakistan to fight for Kashmir.

But after attending a camping trip in Wales, organised to weigh up volunteers, he said he was turned down because he was too white to blend in.

Garcia, of Barkingside, east London, said he met Khyam and others from Crawley through his brother. He said: "They looked like hairy hobbits."

Khyam told him he could get him military training in Pakistan so Garcia said he took out a loan of nearly £8,500 and flew to the country.

But as he waited in a village house to be taken to the camp, his diary read in court revealed he was less than impressed.

He referred then to Khyam as "the short guy" and "psycho" because he thought he was "very strange", adding: "He laughs like a nutter."

Salahuddin Amin, 31, was brought up in Luton but chose to live in Pakistan after graduating from university and becoming radicalised.

He was arrested there, detained for ten months and then "tricked" into returning to Britain where he was arrested on board a plane at Heathrow in February 2005.

He claimed he was tortured into admitting involvement in the plot by the Pakistani security forces.

But he went on to repeat his confession as he was treated to fish and chip suppers by anti-terrorist officers at Paddington Green police station in central London.

He said he got involved with terrorists but had no intention of setting off explosives himself. Khyam had wanted to "get explosive training to do something in the UK".

In court, he said he was still suffering the effects of mental torture when he told officers what he thought they wanted to hear.

He denied being the person who passed on bomb recipe information and asked Khyam if he wanted a nuclear bomb during internet conversations.