A medical student known as "The Surgeon" who led an IS-inspired plot to carry out a Paris-style terrorist attack on the streets of Britain is facing a life sentence.

Medical student Tarik Hassane, 22, known to his friends as "The Surgeon" planned to shoot police officers and members of the Parachute Regiment in West London in a drive-by attack on a moped.

The son of a Saudi diplomat, Hassane pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder and preparation of terrorist acts during a trial at the Old Bailey.

Hassane, from Ladbroke Grove, was part of a wider network of jihadis who are believed to have become radicalised in west London, including Mohammed Emwazi, better known as the IS militant 'Jihadi John.'

It is a long way from video footage uploaded to YouTube in 2011, which shows Hassane campaigning against violence in a film made by the Making Communities Work and Grow youth group near his London home.

Shepherds Bush Police Station and the Parachute Regiment TA barracks in London

Hassane, who planned the attacks from Sudan where he was studying, had pledged an oath of allegiance to IS and was further inspired by a fatwa issued by Isil in September 2014 that called on followers to “kill disbelievers” in the West.

As “Jihadi John” began his killing spree in Syria, Hassane had mocked his victims, writing FoleyinHell and SotloffInHell.

Hassane used Google StreetView to conduct a reconnaissance mission of the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army barracks in White City and a police station in Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush.

He was found to have viewed gruesome images online, including images of Jihad John, decapitated heads, and fighters who supposedly had smiles on their faces because they were going to paradise.

Police seized 22 terrabites, of digital material, the largest ever examined by the Counter-Terrorism Command, amounting to 2 million files, the equivalent of 75 miles of paper if it was printed out following his arrest in London in October 104.