Islamic State supporter admits plot to try to blow up St Paul's Cathedral
A female supporter of Islamic State plotted to plant a bomb under the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral during a packed service in a bid to kill as many people as she could.
Safiyya Amira Shaikh, 36, was caught by undercover officers last year as she planned to plant two explosive devices in central London, one at the historic cathedral and one at a nearby hotel.
She admitted planning to carry out the devastating terrorist attack after having pledged allegiance to Isil.
The Old Bailey heard yesterday how Shaikh, a convert born Michelle Ramsden, carried out reconnaissance visits to the cathedral to discover the most effective way of evading security measures and find the best place to plant a bomb at Christmas or Easter.
She also admitted planning to blow up the central London hotel where she was staying during her scoping trips.
Shaikh, who is thought to be Britain’s first solo female Isil bomb plotter, was arrested in October last year after asking an undercover police officer to supply bombs.
In a two-month period before she was arrested Shaikh had built up a relationship with two undercover police officers posing as a husband and wife extremist cell.
Using the encrypted social media app Telegram to communicate with them she sent the couple a series of increasingly chilling messages about her plans.
In one she said: "I want to kill a lot. I would like to do church... a day like Christmas or Easter good, kill more. I always send threats. But I want to make threats real."
Shaikh also sent a picture of St Paul's Cathedral to the officer, writing: "I would like to do this place for sure.
"I would like bomb and shoot til death... I really would love to destroy that place and the kaffir [enemies of IS] there."
Just over a week later she visited St Paul's and sent videos to her contact, stating: "I will to the bomb under the dome. I will also do something in hotel, then church, then kill till I'm dead."
On Sep 24 she met the female undercover officer in Uxbridge, west London, handing over two bags which she wanted to be fitted with homemade bombs.
Then on Oct 13, the female undercover officer cancelled a second meeting and police forced their way into Shaikh's flat to arrest her.
The prosecutions said Shaikh was born to a non-Muslim family and converted to Islam in 2007 after being touched by the kindness of her Muslim neighbours.
However, she later became isolated and, after apparently rejecting mainstream Islam began to follow extremists online, becoming obsessed with the extremist violent ideology of IS and other jihadist groups.
By 2016 she had stopped attending mosques, apparently worried that fellow worshippers and imams were growing suspicious of her extremist views. She was also reported to the government's Prevent programme, aimed at stopping people being drawn into or supporting terrorism.
In one encrypted message to an undercover officer last August, she said that she would "rather die young and get to Jannah (paradise) quickest way possible".
The facts were not opened in court, but according to a prosecution case summary, Shaikh had stated her main aim was to kill as many people as possible in a suicide attack on St Paul's.
In police interviews, the defendant, who claimed benefits, admitted the plot, although she said she may not have gone through with it.
The would-be bomber also admitted enabling others to obtain, read, listen to or look at terrorist publications via ‘Telegram’, to encourage them to prepare acts of terrorism.
Shaikh, from Hayes, Middlesex, admitted preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications during a brief hearing at the Old Bailey.
Dressed in a black robe, she spoke quietly as she entered her guilty pleas before Mr Justice Sweeney.
The judge ordered pre-sentence reports ahead of sentencing on May 11 and ordered that the defence should serve any psychiatric report by April 3.
