Parviz Khan, the fanatic who plotted to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier, was jailed for life yesterday and told it was impossible to predict when, if ever, he would be released.

Four others were sentenced with him but it was Khan, who claimed to be a full-time carer for his elderly mother, who was the prime mover in the Birmingham-based terror cell.

Sentencing him at the end of a trial of two co-defendants at Leicester Crown Court, Mr Justice Henriques said: "You have been described by the Crown as a man who has the most violent and extreme Islamist views and as a fanatic.

"Having studied over the last month (the covert recordings), I unhesitatingly accept that description of you.

"You not only plotted to kill a soldier, but you intended to film a most brutal killing."

The trial of Zahoor Iqbal and Amjad Mah-mood revealed how Khan had turned from a drinker and smoker who liked nightclubs into an extremist obsessed with the speeches of Osama Bin Laden and Sheikh Abu Hamza.

In between visits to Pakistan between 2004 and 2006, he stocked up on fundamentalist propaganda, including films of beheadings and footage of the September 11 and July 7 attacks.

He even tried to indoctrinate his own young children - a bugging device planted by security services at his home, in Foxton Road, Alum Rock, recorded him teaching one child how to carry out a beheading.

Khan was claiming benefits of more than £20,000 a year during the time he plotted to snatch the serviceman off the streets and decapitate him "like a pig", the court was told.

It was a plot police believe was supported by al Qaida and his aim, said Mr Justice Henriques, was to deter any Muslim from joining the British Army.

"This was not only a plot to kill a soldier, but a plot to undermine the morale of the British Army and inhibit recruitment," said the judge.

Mitigating, Michael Wolkind QC said his client was as much a fantasist as a fanatic.

Khan defiantly refused to attend court throughout the proceedings in Leicester. As he sat to enter his guilty pleas last month, he told the court via video link from prison: "I would just like to say greetings to all Muslims."

Continuing his sentencing, Mr Justice Henriques told the absent defendant: "So rampant are your views, so excitable your temperament, so persuasive your tongue and so imbued with energy are you, it's quite impossible to predict when, if ever, it will be safe for you to be released into the public.

Khan was given a minimum 14 years for the plot, eight years for the supply of equipment and two-and-a-half years for both counts of being in possession of the records of documents. The sentences will run concurrently.

The judge said he was unable to give the defendant an indeterminate sentence for the public protection because such sentences for terrorism offences were not covered by the Criminal Justice Act 2007.

It means the Parole Board and not the Home Secretary will determine whether Khan can be released as soon as he is eligible, in 2022.

Amjad Mahmood, 32, of Jackson Road, Alum Rock, was cleared by the jury of knowing about the plot and failing to tell the authorities, and supplying equipment. In a statement read by his lawyer, he thanked the jury for "all their hard work in coming to the decision about me".

He said: "I am not a terrorist, I am a Muslim. "The Government has to be responsible about how they deal with people accused of terrorism."

Asking for privacy, he said: "It has been the hardest year of my life. I am looking forward to returning to my family and seeing my six-month-old baby for the first time."

After the sentencing, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "The chilling brutality of this plot highlights the severity of the threat the UK faces. This case shows that terrorism does not discriminate and that the threat is faced by all our communities, regardless of political, faith or ethnic background.

"I am determined that we will do all we can to maximise public safety and the Government has bolstered our national capability with regional Counter Terrorism Units and increased resources for counter terrorism.

"This successful operation, led and coordinated by the West Midlands Unit, demonstrates the vital role they play in countering this threat."

Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, also praised police and intelligence services and thanked Britain's Muslim soldiers "for having the courage to stand up for what is right in the face of terrorism and intimidation".