A YORKSHIRE-born Muslim convert convicted in Australia's first terrorism trial was sentenced today to nine years in prison.

Perth District Court judge Paul Healy said 50-year-old Jack Roche, originally from Hull, should serve four and a half years before becoming eligible for parole, although he backdated the term to start when Roche was taken into custody - meaning that Roche could be free in about three years.

He admitted plotting to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Canberra.

Prosecutor Ron Davies earlier described Roche's plot as an affront to Australian values, and called for a sentence approaching the 25-year maximum to serve as "a dramatic deterrent'.

"He's planned to bring these ideas, these people who are the scourge of the modern, civilised world, back into his own country," Davies said.