A terrorist who threatened to blow up Bluewater with a fertiliser bomb has launched a public-funded bid to be moved to an open prison.

Jawad Akbar, was one of five men to be jailed in 2007 after their plans to kill hundreds of people at the Greenhithe shopping centre were discovered.

The 36-year-old is held at The Mount closed prison in Hertfordshire but is due for release in 18 months for his part in the scheme which also targeted other key sites across across the country.

It is reported Akbar, who was from Crawley in West Sussex, believes authorities are refusing to move him to an open prison to help him prepare for freedom.

It's also alleged he has legal aid for a three-day High Court hearing, which could cost the taxpayer up to £50,000.

A source told the Mirror: "It is horrifying that a convicted terrorist can complain that he wants to be in an open prison and it costs vast sums from the public purse.”

Akbar's legal team told the paper a ban on switching to an open prison is unfair would restrict his chances of gaining his liberty back if he does not have the opportunity to have his reduction of risk ‘tested’ in open conditions”.

He is due for release in September 2021.

Waheed Mahmood, Omar Khyam, Anthony Garcia, Salahuddin Amin were the other defendants in the trial - which took the jury 27 days to reach a verdict - and cost the nation more than £50 million. All five were handed life sentences.

Two other men, Shujah Mahmood, 20, and Nabeel Hussain, 22, were cleared.

During the trial it was revealed the gang were poised to attack the shopping centre with a massive device, made for just £100 containing ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder.

The home-made bomb was made from household ingredients, inspired by the Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh, who killed 168 people with an almost identical device in 1995.

At the time, judge Sir Michael Astill QC, said: "All of you were determined to cause indiscriminate death, injury and suffering of unsuspecting and innocent members of the community."

"This was demonstrated by the discussions that took place about where improvised devices could be placed, such as the Bluewater retail complex and the Ministry of Sound. These are examples of sites where numerous members of the public congregated and became vulnerable targets.

"They demonstrate the scale of horror, which you were prepared to inflict and would have inflicted but for the intervention of the security services and the police."

To get the latest updates on ongoing cases, police appeals and criminals put behind bars, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Gravesend