Prominent businessman and community philanthropist Sir Trevor Chinn was a potential target researched by an alleged al-Qaeda cell, a court has heard.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court was told last week that Habib Ahmed, 38, of Cheetham Hill, Manchester, had researched how to make a bomb and had run several Google searches on possible targets.

These included Sir Trevor, chairman of the Israel-Britain Business Council and chair of the Mayor's Fund for London, described in court as someone "close to Tony Blair, who was then Prime Minister".

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The Community Security Trust claims that society is entering "dangerous territory" as extremists are increasingly using newspaper websites to reach wider audiences.

Most newspapers, as well as broadcasters, have areas on their websites which provide open forums, allowing members of the public to create a blog or their own page.

The CST said this week that an increasingly large number of extremists were using such media outlets, giving them platforms with huge audiences through which to air their views.

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