When Rauf was arrested in Pakistan in 2006, in connection with the plot, British detectives had to bring the whole operation that had been targeting the liquid bombers forward in a hurry.

But in a bizarre twist, Rauf managed to escape from custody in Pakistan just before Christmas in 2007.

Rauf had been attending a hearing in Islamabad before his guards stopped at a roadside mosque to allow him to pray.

They uncuffed him and the militant quickly escaped through a back door.

US agents refused to let prosecutors use the e-mails in the first trial of the liquid bombers, hoping that Rauf would begin to use the Yahoo! email account again.

Months after he was killed in a missile strike by an unmanned US Predator drone aircraft in the lawless North Waziristan region in November last year, Scotland Yard was told it could use the crucial emails which helped secure yesterday’s prosecution.

Last year Rauf was named as a possible “facilitator” of the July 7 London bombings and he also had links to Muktar Ibrahim, the leader of the failed July 21 London bombings.

While his body has never been recovered and his family have challenged whether he is dead, intelligence experts say it is likely that he is dead.