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Hate preacher Anjem Choudary was today branded a “pathetic” and “sad individual” as he was released from London’s highest security prison under cover of darkness.

The 51-year-old radicaliser was whisked out of Belmarsh jail at around 4am in a convoy of unmarked police vehicles to a bail hostel in north London, arriving at 6.29am.

Wearing blue Adidas trainers and Choudary was escorted by three police officers as he walked up the front steps to the six-storey bail hostel - which is close to shops and schools.

He was in a grey cardigan, over a long white robe, and had a long grey beard. Five other unmarked police cars were parked nearby.

A plain-clothed police officer later took three black bags containing Choudary’s belongings from the boot of an unmarked car.

He came out of his bail hostel at 12.55pm and stood on the steps. Looking fit and healthy he stayed outside for under a minute before heading back inside.

He did not speak or answer reporters’ questions. He was flanked by community wardens.

His release - after serving half of the five-and-a-half year sentence imposed in 2016 for inviting support for the Islamic State - came despite a warning from the prisons minister Rory Stewart that he remains a “genuinely dangerous person”.

Today, however, Sir Mark Rowley, who was Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism police officer until earlier this year, poured scorn on Choudary as he backed Whitehall sources who have described the radicaliser as a “shameless coward” unwilling to fight himself.

Sir Mark said that although it had been “good to put him in prison” it was important to recognise his true nature.

He added: “At the end of the day, he’s a pathetic groomer of others, that’s what he’s done in the past. He’s not some sort of evil genius who we all need to be afraid of.

“We have to recognise that radicalisers look to generate a profile, they look to prey on the vulnerable, and we need to be thoughtful about how we report their activity.”

Choudary, who police have blamed for radicalising many of Britain’s worst terrorists during a decades long career of extremist preaching, will now have to comply with 25 conditions designed to prevent him from inciting further violence.

They include a ban on going beyond the M25 and a bar on using any internet-enabled device without permission. The one mobile phone that he will be allowed will be subject to examination by police whenever requested.

Choudary will also be banned from any preaching or radicalising activity and from meeting children unsupervised. He will not be allowed to organise meetings and barred from going to certain mosques.

Nor is he allowed to go to St Pancras or City Airport under a curb imposed to stop him fleeing abroad.

Other restrictions will ban him from contacting anyone he knows or believes to have been convicted of an extremist offence or anyone associated with a list of more than extremist organisations, including IS, al-Qaeda, and the al-Muhajiroun group that he founded.

Another condition will specifically bar him from any contact with Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, the London extremist previously jailed for soliciting murder with whom he was convicted in 2016.

Any breach of the conditions, which will potentially last until July 2021, will allow him to be put back into prison to serve the remaining portion of his sentence.

Prime Minister Theresa May said last night that “well-rehearsed plans are put in place to keep the public safe” whenever an extremist prisoner such as Choudary was released and that those who failed to comply with the curbs imposed on them faced “immediate recall” to prison.

Terrorists who have been radicalised by Choudary and his associates include the London Bridge killer Khuram Butt, the murderers of Fusilier Lee Rigby, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, and the suspected IS executioner Siddhartha Dhar.

His conviction in 2016 followed ten previous unsuccessful attempts by police to have him prosecuted.

They failed because of limitations in the reach of law which new legislation now passing through Parliament is aiming to close.

Sentencing rules also mean that Choudary was able to count time spent on remand, when he was subject to a curfew while on bail, as part of his jail term. The result is that he spent less than half of his sentence actually behind bars.