What Islam can do for you.
Amazing transformation of White Muslim convert born in Belfast who has been jailed for three years for plotting to disarm an army officer and gun down Prince Harry
- Ashraf Islam, 31, was born Mark Townley in Belfast but converted to Islam
- He wanted to kill the soldier prince for having ‘blood on his hands’
- But he lost his nerve and walked into Hounslow police station to confess
- He was sentenced today at Isleworth after admitting making a threat to kill
- Judge said his plan was ‘unlikely to succeed’ but he was a risk to public
By HARRIET ARKELL
PUBLISHED: 16:53 GMT, 10 February 2014 | UPDATED: 04:00 GMT, 11 February 2014
A Belfast-born convert to Islam who planned to shoot Prince Harry dead has been jailed after admitting making a threat to kill.
Ashraf Islam, 31, who was formerly known as Mark Townley, had wanted to kill the fourth in line to the throne, whom he believed ‘had blood on his hands’ after taking part in two tours of Afghanistan, by disarming a bodyguard and using his gun to shoot Harry.
Today he was jailed for three years after the judge at Isleworth Crown Court in west London described Islam’s plot as ‘vague and unlikely to succeed’, but said he presented a risk to the public.


Ashraf Islam, 31, who was Mark Townley, left, before he converted to Islam, was jailed today for three years after telling police he was plotting to kill Prince Harry, whom he thought had ‘blood on his hands’ as a soldier
Islam, of no fixed address but who had been living in west London, had handed himself in to police in May last year the day after drummer Lee Rigby was killed in Woolwich.
His barrister, Roxanne Morrell, told the judge that Islam had given himself up and volunteered information about his plot.
Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson, the recorder for Kensington and Chelsea, said he would not go over details of Islam’s plot, but he told Islam during the brief hearing: ‘This was not a threat made in isolation.