Anzac Day terror plot: Teen who plotted to run over and behead police officer jailed

A 19-year-old who plotted to run over then behead a police officer on Anzac Day in Australia has been jailed for 10 years.

Sevdet Ramadan Besim from Melbourne pleaded guilty at the Victoria Supreme Court to one count of plotting a terrorist act.

He was handed a 10-year sentence, and must serve seven and a half before being eligible for parole.

In sentencing, Justice Michael Croucher described the plans as "evil" and designed to "strike fear into the community", ABC reported.

"It was also evil because, among other things, the planned behaviour was calculated to undermine the authority of the institutions of government... and to use Mr Besim's own words, 'to make sure the dogs remember this as well as their fallen heroes on Anzac Day'."

Besim had planned the attack with a 15-year-old from Birmingham, who was given a life sentence earlier this year. The teenager, who cannot be named, is Britain's youngest ever convicted terrorist and will serve at least five years before being considered for release.

The two had also joked about packing a kangaroo's pouch with explosives and setting it loose on a police officer, the court heard.

Besim was radicalised by older extremists he met at the now closed Al Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne, including Neil Prakash, who travelled to join Islamic State (Isis/Daesh) in Syria.

Besim was friends with Numan Haider, who was shot dead after attacking counterterror police officers with a knife in 2014. Defence lawyers for Besim told the court he planned the Anzac Day attack as an "immature response" to the death of his friend.

Croucher said that there was evidence Besim wanted to pull out of the plans, and that he had good prospects for rehabilitation.

He had planned the attack for 25 April, the day on which Australia and New Zealand remember those killed in the 1915 Gallipoli operation.