NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, who played a key role in the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attack, escaped the life sentence as an American court sentenced him to 35 years in prison.

Headley, 52, son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American mother, was born in Washington and faced life imprisonment without parole for his heinous crime.

Headley's role in the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack:

# Starting in 2002 and continuing to 2005, Headley attended five separate Lashkar training camps where he was indoctrinated on the merits of waging jihad and trained in combat skills.

# At the instance of LeT leaders, he changed his given name of Dawood Gilani and enlisted the assistance of his friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana to travel to and stay in Mumbai without detection starting in 2006 and continuing to 2008.

# Headley provided video of and intelligence about the locations that later were targeted during the Mumbai attacks, Shapiro said.

# Headley also assisted in plotting out a portion of the nautical route that the attackers would take, and recommended the landing point that they later used to enter Mumbai without being detected.

# After seeing what took place in Mumbai in November 2008, Headley travelled to Denmark in January 2009. There, he gained entry to two separate facilities for the newspaper, using the same cover story provided to him by Rana that he used in Mumbai.

# Before each trip, Lashkar members and associates instructed Headley regarding specific locations where he was to conduct surveillance.

# After each trip, Headley travelled to Pakistan to meet with Lashkar members and associates, report on the results of his surveillance, and provide the surveillance videos.

# Before the April 2008 surveillance trip, Headley and co-conspirators in Pakistan discussed potential landing sites in Mumbai for a team of attackers who would arrive by sea.

# Headley returned to Mumbai with a global positioning system device and took boat trips around the Mumbai harbour and entered various locations into the device.

# Headley trips included the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Cafe, the Chabad House and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had scouted in advance, prosecutors said.

# In March 2009, Headley made a sixth trip to India to conduct additional surveillance, including of the National Defence College in Delhi, and of Chabad Houses in several cities.