A suspected al-Qaeda operative who stabbed to death a police officer has been convicted of plotting to spread poisons on the streets of Britain. Kamel Bourgass is serving a life sentence after being convicted of murdering Detective Constable Stephen Oake during a 2003 raid in Manchester. Reporting restrictions covering that conviction were lifted on Wednesday. Four other men were cleared last week of taking part in a conspiracy. A second trial has been abandoned. Another man, Mohammed Meguerba, who jumped bail and fled Britain, is awaiting trial in Algeria. Police found a series of recipes, ingredients and equipment which would have enabled Bourgass to manufacture ricin, cyanide, nicotine poison and several other poisons. There were also instructions about making explosives. Police believe Bourgass was an al-Qaeda operative and say he had discussed various ways of spreading nicotine poison, including smearing it on car door handles in the Holloway Road area of north London.