A SOUTHAMPTON student who smuggled a box of explosive flares on to a plane at Stansted Airport to set off at matches has been spared jail.

Andreas Pierides, 22, is a member of the left-wing 'ultra' supporters of Cypriot football team AC Omonia and kept a stash of anarchist material on his laptop computer.

Police were alerted to the extremist material he had on his laptop when a member of the public snapped a photo of him browsing bomb making introductions on a train.

The university student was stopped by officers on his way home to Cyprus on 15 May this year after finishing his first year studies in business at the University of Southampton.

When police searched his luggage in the hold of the aircraft they found eight distress flares.

Pierides also had a stash of anarchist material, including bomb manuals, instructions on how to kill a person with your bare hands and 'more ways to send a car to hell', on his computer.

He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years at Inner London Crown Court for collecting information likely to be useful to a terrorist and having a dangerous article in an airplane.

Mr Justice Sweeney said: 'You are from Cyprus and the offences were committed in this country when you were a student at Southampton University.

'You have put forward a basis of plea which has been accepted save for your claim that your intention was to use the flares on your jet ski in Cyprus.

'I rejected your account and reached the sure conclusion that as an admitted member of Gate Nine, a left wing group of Ultra supporters of the Cyprian team Omonia, you had the flares for ultimately illegal use in a football stadium.'

He added: 'Your possession of the handbook was a mixture of ignorance, naivety and immature curiosity.

'In 2013 you enrolled on a business course at Southampton University. 'When you came over to this country to begin the course you brought your computer with you, it has the handbook on it.

'On 19 January this year you were seen on a train looking at part of the content.

'You were so observed by a member of the public looking at it on your computer.

'The lady who saw you doing so was unsurprisingly alarmed and took two photographs of what she could see on your scream and reported it to the police.

'That reading on a train in full view of others is an indication of your naivety.'

He added: 'That information would have been highly dangerous if it had fallen into the wrong hands.

'Your arrest in relation to the cookbook led to the discovery that you had checked on baggage containing eight maritime flares.

'Indeed that baggage had been loaded onto the plane.

'The flares are dangerous, each is capable of exploding and reaching a temperature of 1,000C over a burning period in the order of five seconds.

'They presented an obvious danger if there had been for example a fire in the hold.

'In addition your intention ultimately was to use them illegally, albeit limited to firing them into the air at a football match.

'In the very particular circumstances of this case the sentence can be suspended.'

Pierides insists he only bought the flares to use if he ran into trouble while on his jetski.

He previously told the court: 'It was the first time I saw them where it said they were waterproof.

'If I wanted to use a flare at a football match I would use a handheld flare - you can get them anywhere in Cyprus.

'To light flares is something common in Cyprus.'

Pierides added that his uncle works for the CID in Cyprus and his mother used to be in the anti-terrorist squad before becoming a police trainer.

He admitted having the anarchist cookbook and other documents in a folder titled 'Anarchism' but told the hearing: 'I am not associated with the anarchist movement but I know things about anarchist and left wing and about right wing.'

Prosecutor Alistair Richardson previously said: 'He admitted in interview his links with a group of ultra supporters of the Omonia football team.

'He had photos demonstrating the link between Omonia and the use of flares at football stadia.

'Analysis of his mobile phone shows text messages discussing the sale and purchase of fireworks, flares, fire crackers and smoke bombs.

'This is a man who has an obvious interest in flares linked to football.'

The court heard that the flares were initially given back to Pierides - only for police to confiscate them five days later when they realised their mistake.

Pierides, of (17) Lullington Garth, Woodside Park, Barnet, north London, remains on conditional bail.