A SCIENCE teacher who was ready to go to Syria and kill people in the name of militant group Islamic State has been been jailed for nine years.

Sharples School teacher Jamshed Javeed, aged 30, also paid for flights and equipment so brother Mohammed and friend Khalil Raoufi could travel to the war-torn country.

Javeed, who had pleaded guilty to preparing himself and others for acts of terrorism, was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court today.

Judge Michael Topolski said it was clear Javeed was "adherent to a violent jihadist mindset".

He was given an extended sentence of nine years, comprising a custodial term of six years, plus a further three years on licence.

The "radicalised" teacher, whose family hid his passport in a desperate attempt to stop him joining Isis, was poised to travel to Syria in late 2013 to fight alongside the group, which later became widely known as Islamic State.

Javeed, aged 30, insisted he was travelling only to support the people of Syria, not to join the terror group.

He persisted with his plans, despite learning his wife was pregnant, and was arrested in December 2013 hours before he was due to leave the UK.

In his basis of plea, he claimed he wanted to go to support the ordinary people of Syria, was not an extremist and had never supported "the aims of Isis as now revealed and understood".

The pony-tailed teacher showed no emotion as Judge Topolski imposed sentence.

He told him: "By late summer or early autumn of 2013 you had become sufficiently radicalised and committed to a violent jihadist ideology that you were part of a group of young men determined to travel to Syria to join Isis and to fight and die for them."

He praised the "resolve and courage" of Javeed's family in attempting to scupper his plans, and said: "Even the prospect of becoming a father did not deter you.

"I find that you were not planning to return to this country... but rather to die, if you could, as a martyr.

"Whether you believed you were fighting in a just cause is irrelevant. The law is clear — this was terrorism."

Judge Topolski added: "You are in my judgment an individual whose potential danger to the public in this country or abroad is clear."

He said Javeed played an "important role" in enabling his younger brother and three other men to travel to Syria to fight.

"One of those young men is now dead," he said. "The other three are effectively missing."

Earlier, Simon Denison QC, prosecuting, told the court that evidence indicates Javeed was "intent on fighting with the terrorist group".

He said: "It follows that the action he was intent on committing inevitably included acts of murder, using firearms and/or explosives."

Javeed was among a group of young Muslim men from Greater Manchester who became radicalised and "determined to fight jihad" in 2013.

He helped his younger brother Mohammed, aged 21, and two other men join Isis by providing money for flights as well as clothing and equipment.

Javeed prepared to follow them to the country with another member of the group, Nur Hassan, in November 2013, buying clothing, equipment and flight tickets, but was stopped from travelling by his family, who hid the clothes he had prepared, along with his passport.

He remained committed to the trip, leading to fraught exchanges with his family.

Even his wife Shameila's disclosure that she was pregnant with their daughter could not deter him.

In a text exchange, she said: "Jamshed, you refuse to take on board anyone's opinion unless I've got a gun and I'm in Syria."

At his home, police found a rucksack containing items including £1,490 in cash, thermal gloves and combat-style trousers.

Javeed's internet activity suggested an interest in violent jihadist extremism.

His web searches included prominent figures such as the radical clerics Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, as well as the jihadi group Jabhat al Nusra.

Charles Bott QC, for Javeed, said he was "deeply moved" by images of Syrian people suffering at the hands of the regime.

He said: "The defendant's position is that he did something that he considered right at the time in very particular circumstances that he would not contemplate doing now.

"He is one of many people who did not know the truth about Isis in the later months of 2013."

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg said in a statement that Javeed was "one of the more thoughtful and least dogmatic" inmates he met at Belmarsh prison.

Begg was later released after charges against him were dropped.

Sharples High School headteacher Rachel Quesnel said: “The reasons for his arrest were unrelated to our school and Mr Javeed is no longer employed by us."

There is no indication Javeed tried to radicalise pupils.