University lecturer Tadesse Kersmo, 51, was also caught with documents giving details about knife fighting techniques and US Navy Seal sniper training, it was claimed. 

He downloaded information on hitting moving targets, shooting at night and a manual described as “a modern day Terrorism for Dummies.”

Kersmo lived in Ethiopia until 2009 when, as a critic of its government, he fled to the UK, Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London heard.

He was a lecturer in business and economics at Greenwich University, south-east London, where he seemed to be a “peaceable academic” interested in Ethiopian politics. 

But Barnaby Jameson, prosecuting, said: “There was more than one side to this lecturer in economics.” 

Kersmo, of Finsbury Park, north London, made three trips to a training camp in Eritrea in 2015 and 2016, the court heard. 

He denies seven counts of possession of documents useful for terrorism and one count of attending a place used for terrorist training. 

The trial continues.