Abu Hamza al-Masri is probably the most frequently abused and ridiculed figure in this country. So said his own lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald QC, as he opened his client's defence at his Old Bailey trial.

Born Mustafa Kamel Mustafa in Alexandria, Egypt, on 15 April 1958, Abu Hamza was the son of a naval officer and a primary school headmistress. He initially studied civil engineering before leaving for England in 1979.

In London, one of his first jobs was as a nightclub bouncer. He married a British woman and decided to resume his studies at Brighton Polytechnic.

His marriage rapidly broke down, but he later remarried and had seven children.

One of Abu Hamza's first major engineering contracts took him to Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy. Technical drawings of the college were still in his home when he was arrested in 2004.

Courtesy of BBC
Dominic Casciani

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