Mubashir Jamil, described as a "gifted" student from Luton in the east of England, is on trial on terrorism charges at the Old Bailey Court in London.
The computer gaming enthusiast is said to have been radicalised through his interest in the internet, Luton Today reported.
"The defence will say the defendant sought to join ISIS as a way of exorcising the various evil spirits that plagued him, that he did not have any intention to commit acts of terrorism anywhere, that he had no intention to engage in violent jihad," Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson said at the ongoing trial this week, the report said.
Jamilwas arrested in April last year and had denied charges of preparing for terrorist acts by travelling to Syria.
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The court was told that he had become obsessed with the idea of martyrdom after surfing the internet for ISIS propaganda.
"It was through the internet that the defendant was drawn into a world poles apart from that of a gifted schoolboy with A* in both the arts and the sciences. Through the world wide web the defendant became an extreme jihadist radical and follower of Islamic State," Jameson said.
Jamil had allegedly offered to put on a suicide vest to execute a terrorist attack in the UK and was arrested by counter-terrorist officers a few days before a planned flight to Turkey.
In encrypted chat with an apparent ISIS contact in Syria who in reality was an undercover security official, he allegedly said: "I mean if they need someone to do attack from UK I can do it tomorrow... if they can send someone to my house with explosive vest I can be the person to press the button on the same day if they need."
The trial is expected to last a few weeks.
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