A man who set up more than 20 social media accounts to spread pro-Islamic State posts online has been jailed.

Shafi Mohammed Saleem, 28, used a host of handles on Twitter and Instagram in a bid to spread his extremist views.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard this week how police raided Saleem's Forest Gate home in April 2017 after an investigation into his online activities.

One of Saleem’s tweets included an image of two ‘zombie knives’, with just the word “itching”. Another showed a second man holding the knives, with the words “dip dip dip”, meaning ‘to stab’.

Detectives recovered nine digital devices from Saleem’s home address, containing one terabyte of data.

Specialist forensic investigators trawled through the data, retrieving images of articles from terrorist magazines, videos of Osama Bin Laden and Daesh militants.

A picture recovered from Saleem’s Telegram app showed him posing with what appeared to be a genuine handgun.

An image retrieved from a laptop also showed a meeting between a number of men including convicted hate preacher Anjem Choudhary.

Saleem was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to charges of encouraging terrorism.

Commander Dean Haydon, of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: “I cannot underplay the importance of bringing before the courts people who tweet subversive messages promoting Daesh.

"Every tweet has the potential to radicalise vulnerable people.

"Arresting and bringing to justice people who send messages like Saleem did is just one of the ways that counter terrorism officers nationally are tackling the threat from terrorist propaganda online."

Anyone who sees material online which they believe to be terrorist or extremist is urged to report it via: www.gov.uk/act