Abu izzadeen biography

BBC News looks at the life of radical Muslim preacher Abu Izzadeen, who has been convicted of terrorist fund-raising and inciting terrorism overseas.

Islamist activist Abu Izzadeen was born in Hackney, east London, to Jamaican parents who arrived in the UK in the early s.

Born a Christian, with the name Omar Brooks, he converted to Islam at the age of

The preacher told the jury at his trial that he had a tough childhood in "the most deprived borough in London".

Izzadeen has three children between the ages of two and nine after marrying his wife at the age of

He trained and worked as a BT technician, but stopped working to spend more time speaking at mosques and went on to become a member of the now banned al Muhajiroun group.

The year-old, from Leytonstone, east London, came to prominence when he interrupted a speech by John Reid, the then home secretary, in