Online dating couple ‘planned bomb attack’

A COUPLE plotted an Isilinspired attack on Britain with a home-made bomb or deadly ricin poison after meeting on a dating website, a court heard.

Munir Mohammed, a would-be “lone wolf ”, volunteered for a “new job in the UK”, in Facebook communications with a man he believed was an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) commander, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.

He allegedly enlisted the help of Rowaida el-hassan, a pharmacist, drawing on her knowledge of what chemicals were needed to make a bomb and how to manufacture the deadly poison ricin using castor beans. The pair, of Sudanese origin, had met through a dating website called singlemuslim.com.

At the time of his arrest last December, Mr Mohammed had two of the three components for peroxidebased explosives and the instructions for making bombs, mobile phone detonators, and ricin, the jury heard. Mr Mohammed, 36, of Derby, and Ms el-hassan, 33, of north-west London, denied preparing terrorist acts between November 2015 and December 2016.