UK Islamic State supporter pleads guilty to St. Paul’s Cathedral bomb plot
Safiyya Amira Shaikh admits to preparing terrorist acts after saying she wanted to target London church or ‘historical’ site on Christmas or Easter to ‘kill more’
Undated photo issued Feb. 21, 2020, by London's Metropolitan Police, showing Safiyya Amira Shaikh (Metropolitan Police via AP)
LONDON — A British woman who supported the Islamic State group pleaded guilty Friday to plotting to bomb St. Paul’s Cathedral and a hotel in London.
Safiyya Amira Shaikh, 36, from Middlesex in southeast England, admitted to the preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications. She admitted the offenses at Central London Criminal Court.
A prosecution case summary said Shaikh made contact with someone who could prepare explosives and went on a reconnaissance trip to scope out the cathedral.
Shaikh expressed a desire to target a church or somewhere “historical” on a day like Christmas or Easter to “kill more,” the summary said.
People relax in the sun outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London, June 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
She confided her plans to two others, both of whom were undercover police officers.
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She also shared terrorist documents through groups using the Telegram messaging app between August 2019 and October 2019 and prepared a pledge of allegiance to Islamic State, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Shaikh was born Michelle Ramsden to a non-Muslim family and converted to Islam in 2007. She is to be sentenced in May.
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