Born: 1971;

Place of Birth: Trawden Crescent, Preston, United Kingdom;

Gender: Male;

Nationality: British;

General Info:
Blackburn Town Hall and The Mall were evacuated as army bomb disposal experts and armed police were called to the benches in King William Street, after passers-by assumed the device was a credible threat.

Craig Slee is accused for planting a fake bomb and having Islamic State material on town centre benches in an attempt to panic shoppers and workers.

Slee watched from a nearby doorway as the drama unfolded near the easyCoffee shop at 4.30pm on May 3.

He had a laptop covered in electrical tape with a mobile phone attached to it, a silver case with electric tape on it, and books titled The Island Of ISIS and The Girl Who Beat ISIS, belonged to him.

The 49-year-old later told police he was part of the rave collective, Spiral Tribe, and was raising awareness of terror attacks in New Zealand and Sri Lanka by recording a music video.

Slee also put online links to a communique by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claiming those from the west were “Crusaders” and encouraging terrorism.

The court heard Slee created a false identity and set up a Facebook page – using the alter-ego Hashim X Shakur – and created another account called FB Mujahideen. On his Hashim X Shakur Facebook account, Slee claimed to be a Muslim and provided personal information about himself, the majority of which was false.

He also engaged in Facebook chat with other people and kept up his pretence of his alter-ego, claiming he had been on trips to Jalalabad, had suffered shrapnel injuries and implied he was a member of the Taliban, said police.

But he denied placing an article with intent, but a jury of eight men and four women took just 35 minutes to find him guilty. He was remanded into custody to be sentenced on March 27.