A suspected al Qaida terrorist who was plotting to use the deadly poison ricin has been jailed for life for the murder of a Special Branch detective, it was revealed yesterday.

Kamel Bourgass, a 31-year-old failed Algerian asylum seeker, turned a Manchester flat into a bloodbath after he was cornered by police.

He grabbed a kitchen knife and killed Detective Constable Stephen Oake, stabbing him eight times. He also knifed three other policemen during his escape bid.

At the time Bourgass, who was also known as Nadir Habra, was on the run after his attempts to make ricin and other poisons were discovered at a flat in Wood Green, north London, in a raid by anti-terrorist police nine days earlier.

Detectives believe he had been trained in terror camps in Afghanistan run by al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and was selected for instruction in making poisons and explosives.

According to an alleged co-conspirator, who co-operated with authorities when he was arrested in Algeria, Bourgass was planning to smear poison on the door handles of cars and buildings in the Holloway area of north London.

Detectives believe he might also have had plans to use it in spray form or to contaminate consumer products.

In the London raid, police found recipes and ingredients for poisons, including ricin, cyanide and botulinum - one of the most toxic substances known to man - and the blueprint for a bomb.

A pestle and mortar hidden under a chest of drawers contained a substance that initially tested positive as ricin, although later tests were negative. There had also been an attempt to make poison using nicotine extracted from cigarettes.

Scientists at the Porton Down chemical warfare laboratories in Wiltshire later followed the instructions in the recipes - and produced enough ricin and cyanide to kill hundreds of people.

Following Bourgass's arrest in Manchester, blanket reporting restrictions were placed on court proceedings.

Those restrictions were lifted at the Old Bailey yesterday by Mr Justice Penry-Davey after Bourgass had faced two trials, both held amid high security.

In his first trial, which lasted three months and ended in June last year, Bourgass was found guilty of murdering Mr Oake, attempting to murder two Special Branch officers, who or security reasons can only be identified as ''Steve'' and ''John'', and wounding another officer, Sergeant Anthony Grindrod, with intent.

Mr Justice Penry-Davey sentenced Bourgass to life and ruled that he had to serve a minimum of 22 years. He also sentenced Bourgass to 15 years on each attempted murder charge and eight years for the wounding. All the sentences will run concurrently.

A second trial, which began in September last year, ended this week. The jury found Bourgass guilty of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by using poisons and explosives, but failed, after four weeks of deliberations, to reach a verdict on a charge of conspiracy to murder.

Four other Algerians - Mouloud Sihali, 29, David Aissa Khalef, 33, Sidali Feddag, 20, and Mustapha Taleb, 35 - faced the same two charges at Bourgass' second trial. They were cleared on both counts.

Following the not guilty verdicts, prosecutors dropped plans for a third trial involving four other alleged conspirators - three Algerians and a Libyan.

Man of mystery - Page 3