Aine Leslie Davis, 39, was held at Luton Airport in August last year after being deported from Turkey where he had spent seven and a half years in jail for membership of Islamic State.

Yesterday he pleaded guilty to two charges of funding terrorism between 2013 and 2014 and having a firearm.

The defendant entered pleas via video from Belmarsh Jail to the Old Bailey. Judge Mark Lucraft KC adjourned sentence to November 13.

Davis’s terrorist activities dated back to 2013 when he left his home in London to join IS in Syria. Evidence was uncovered from communications with his then wife, mother-of-two Amal El-Wahabi, 36, who stayed in north London living on benefits.

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Davis tricked her friend Nawal Masaad to courier money but she was caught at Heathrow on her way to Turkey with 20,000 euros in her tights.

Following El-Wahabi’s arrest, police found a stash of terrorist propaganda.

On her mobile phone was a picture of him posing with 13 others in military-style gear, with guns held aloft.

In 2014 El-Wahabi was the first convicted of funding terrorism in Syria and jailed for 28 months. Ms Masaad, 36, was cleared of wrongdoing.

Davis has always denied being connected with The Beatles cell – so-called because of their British accents – who tortured and beheaded western hostages in Syria.

Two of its members, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, are now serving life in US jails.

A third, Mohammed Emwazi, dubbed Jihadi John, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.

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Yesterday’s hearing follows unsuccessful bids by Davis’s legal team to get the case thrown out.

During legal argument at the Old Bailey in March, they claimed the then Home Secretary Priti Patel “begged” the US to prosecute Davis.

Davis’s barrister Mark Summers KC claimed Ms Patel veered into “Alice in Wonderland territory” when she phoned US authorities in 2022. Mr Summers said the plan was ultimately abandoned but added: “The irregular personal involvement of the Home Secretary trying to persuade a foreign country to prosecute a UK national is frankly extraordinary.

“It’s difficult to overstate the illegality and irregularity of what was under contemplation for some time.”

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The claim can only now be reported because of Davis’s guilty plea.

However, in a ruling also published yesterday, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Mr Justice Chamberlain and Lord Justice Fulford sided with Judge Lucraft and dismissed the defence claims.

Their ruling stated: “We agree with the judge that there is a wholesale lack of evidence of misconduct on the part of the then Home Secretary and the relevant United Kingdom officials.”

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