A teenage asylum seeker who planted the Parsons Green Tube bomb which injured 51 passengers has failed in a bid to challenge his conviction.

Iraqi Ahmed Hassan, now 19, watched proceedings via video link from prison as three judges in London dismissed his application for permission to appeal.

Hassan, who pretended to engage with the anti-terrorism Prevent scheme as he plotted mass murder in the capital, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 34 years at the Old Bailey last year.

Sir Brian Leveson, Mr Justice Nicol and Sir Brian Keith, sitting at the Court of Appeal, allowed a sentence challenge by Hassan to a “limited extent”, ruling that  182 days spent on remand should be taken off the 34-year minimum.

His conviction application centred on the admissibility of psychological evidence at his trial.

Sir Brian said the court had reviewed a “considerable body of material” before concluding that the conviction challenge should be refused.

Ahmed Hassan court case
CCTV of the Parsons Green bomb

Hassan made a bomb with 400g of “Mother of Satan” explosives and 2.2kg of shrapnel while his unsuspecting foster parents were on holiday in Blackpool.

The Old Bailey heard he wanted to avenge the death of his father in Iraq and was “disappointed” when the bomb only partly detonated in a huge fireball.

A jury rejected his explanation that he only wanted to act out a fantasy like the Tom Cruise film Mission: Impossible and convicted him of multiple attempted murder.

When sentencing him last year, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said Hassan was a “dangerous and devious individual” who quietly went about plotting his attack with “ruthless determination and almost military efficiency while pretending to be a model asylum seeker”.

He told college student Hassan: “Your intention that morning was to kill as many members of the British public as possible.

“I’m satisfied you were determined to create as much death and carnage that day as possible.”

Hassan left his home and caught a train to Wimbledon carrying his bomb inside a Lidl bag.

He set the timer on the District Line and got off one stop before the bomb partially exploded on the floor of the carriage at Parsons Green.

Twenty-three passengers suffered burns, with some describing their hair catching fire and their clothes melting in the blast.

Another 28 suffered cracked ribs and other crush injuries in the stampede to get out of the platform on a narrow stairway.