One of the British Islamic State “Beatles” detained in the US on terrorism charges is to change his plea to guilty, according to documents filed at a court in Virginia.

       Alexanda Kotey, who was arrested in Syria and brought to the US for trial last year, has been charged with conspiring to torture and behead American and European hostages in Syria.

       Kotey, 36, and El Shafee Elsheikh, 32, who were transferred to the US from Iraq in October, initially denied eight charges of conspiracy to commit homicide, hostage-taking resulting in death, and material support for a foreign terrorist organisation, before a judge at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and requested a jury trial.

       It was not immediately clear if Kotey would plead guilty to all the charges, or just some. He is scheduled to appear before Judge Ellis on Thursday afternoon.

       Nothing in the court records indicates that Elsheikh has reached a plea deal.

       Kotey’s change of plea could mean he avoids a trial by jury, which had been set for January 2022.

       The four-man Beatles cell is alleged to have captured and killed a number of Western hostages between 2012 and 2015, including two British aid workers and four American nationals, and are implicated in the deaths of two-dozen others during their time in ISIS’s caliphate in Syria.

       James Foley, an American journalist, was the first killed by the group. The militants also killed Americans Steven Sotloff, and Peter Kassig and are thought to have been implicated in the death of Kayla Mueller, as well as that of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and Japanese journalists Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.

       The indictment alleges that the Londoners “inflicted pain, suffering and cruelty”, which included victims being put through mock executions, electric shocks, chokeholds causing blackouts, food deprivation, being put in stress positions for days, being beating, waterboarding and subject to “rumbles”, which saw them being made to fight one another.

       Families of the victims have waited years for justice, many of whom had wanted to face the pair in court.

       The men’s transfer had been held up by disagreements between the US and the UK as to whether the latter would allow the men to stand trial in the US over objection over the death penalty.

       As part of the deal, the UK handed over vital evidence on both men, which is thought to include intercepted communications, interviews with victims and witness testimony, and was vital to the prosecution’s case.

       According to Assistant US Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick, the US government has already provided defence attorneys for the men with more than 5,900 pages of documents and 27 hard drives or discs of evidence.