Undercover trap halted a massacre at St Paul’s
UNDERCOVER officers posed as a married couple to snare Britain’s first would-be female suicide bomber as she planned a massacre at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Safiyya Amira Shaikh swapped messages with the “husband” online after he convinced the terrorist they were Islamic State sympathisers.
Shaikh, 36, later met the “wife” and handed over two rucksacks which she believed would be fitted with powerful explosive device.
The former company director planned to blow up a central London hotel before going to St Paul’s with the second bomb strapped to her back. Mingling with worshippers and tourists, she hoped to kill herself and as many people as possible under the cathedral’s historic dome.
Shaikh, a Muslim convert, summed up her plot in chilling messages. In one, she vowed to: “kill till I’m dead. I want to kill a lot. I would like to do church... a day like Christmas or Easter good to kill more.”
Shaikh visited St Paul’s in the City of London to scope security and pinpoint the best place to cause maximum loss of life and stayed at her target hotel.
In a message about St Paul’s, she wrote: “I want to do this place for sure. I want to bomb and shoot till death. I would really love to destroy that place and the kaffir [non-believers] there.” She added: “I will do the bomb under the dome. I will do something in hotel, then church, then kill till I’m dead.”
But her plot to commit the two atrocities last year was thwarted by the sting operation mounted by police and MI5.
After outlining her plot, Shaikh met the “wife” and gave her two bags last October. She was arrested shortly after.
Admitted
Yesterday, Shaikh appeared at the Old Bailey – which is about 350 yards from St Paul’s – and pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism. Shaikh, of Hayes, west London, also admitted dissemination of terrorist publications. Mr Justice Sweeney ordered pre-sentence reports ahead of sentencing on May 12.
Dressed in a black robe, Shaikh was remanded in custody and was taken back to HMP Bronzefield, Middlesex.
Shaikh, the first woman to be accused of plotting a suicide bomb attack in Britain, had prepared a pledge of allegiance to Islamic State, the court heard.
Born Michelle Ramsden, she converted to Islam in 2007 after being impressed by the kindness of her Muslim neighbours.
She later rejected mainstream Islam and embraced the twisted version spouted by IS hate preachers. By 2016, she had stopped visiting mosques as she feared she alarmed worshippers.