Abu Hamza, a former imam at Finsbury Park mosque, was found guilty of assisting terrorist groups in a New York court yesterday.

Hamza, who became imam of the mosque in 1997, will be sentenced on September 8, and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

His sermons in Finsbury Park were attended by shoe bomber Richard Reid. Hamza later allegedly preached anti-Western messages there following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Hamza spent seven years in prison in the UK for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred in 2006. He faced an extradition request from the USA in 2004.