A BLACKBURN terrorist has had his jail sentence cut after agreeing to co-operate with prosecutors and give evidence in a US terror trial.

Would-be shoe bomber Saajid Muhammad Badat had his 13 year sentence cut to 11 after the agreement with prosecutors, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

Badat studied the College of Islamic Knowledge and Guidance, in Moss Street, Little Harwood. He was arrested in November 2003 after high-profile raids in Blackburn.

He was jailed in 2005 after he admitted plotting to explode a shoebomb on a transatlantic flight in December 2001 at the same time as fellow shoebomber Richard Reid, but changed his mind and decided not to go through with it.

Sue Hemming, head of the CPS special crime and counter terrorism division, said the agreement had not been entered into lightly.

It will see Badat give evidence in the US trial of Adis Medunjanin over an al Qaida plot to bomb the New York subway.

”We considered very carefully the merits of entering into this agreement with a convicted terrorist, and we believe that the administration of justice internationally benefits from such an agreement,” she said.

"This trial is the first time a UK convicted terrorist has agreed, under the terms of our agreement, to give evidence in the United States.

”Badat has helped with investigations in this country, he continues to co-operate and has agreed to testify in other trials if called upon.”

Ms Hemming added that Badat “fully co-operated with investigators” at Scotland Yard and in the FBI while in prison and “provided information of overwhelming importance in relation to investigations they were conducting”.

Badat arrived in Blackburn in December 2001 and rose through the ranks of local mosques.

But he became involved in terrorism after travelling and returned to the UK with equipment to blow up a plane.