Kenya bomb charge Briton 'was normal schoolboy'

Neighbours of a man accused of being a bomb-maker for a Somalian terror group said he appeared to be a normal school boy when growing up in Newham.

Islamic convert Jermaine Grant, 29, is awaiting trial in Kenya for allegedly plotting to kill Western tourists over Christmas and the New Year on behalf of extremists linked to al Qaeda.

Grant, who denies the charges of possessing explosives and conspiring to commit a crime, is believed to have joined the Somali al Shabaab group after being radicalised while at Feltham young offender institution.

Grant's mother and half-brothers still live in a terrace house, in Newham. A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said Grant was about 14 or 15 when he last saw him attending an East Ham secondary school. He said: "I didn't have any dealings with him but he seemed just a normal boy."

A half-brother told The Sunday Times that Grant had been convicted of rape when he was 14 and sent to Feltham for seven years. On December 28 he was jailed for three years at Mombasa High Court for being in the country illegally and giving false information.