A British woman said she planned to bomb a hotel and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State.
Safiyya Amira Shaikh, 36, pleaded guilty on Friday in London Central Criminal Court. Prosecutors said Shaikh wanted to place an improvised explosive device in a hotel and then carry out a suicide bombing at London’s iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral with the goal of killing herself and “as many other people as possible.”
Shaikh was born with the name Michelle Ramsden to a non-Muslim family but converted to Islam in 2007. She became radicalized by 2015 after listening and interacting with Islamic extremists online, according to the prosecution.
According to prosecutors, Shaikh scoped out the cathedral and stayed at the hotel during a surveillance mission last year. She communicated with an undercover officer using the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Shaikh wrote that she would “rather die young and get to [paradise] quickest way possible.”
“I always knows I wanted to do something big … killing one [infidel] is not enough for me,” she said, expressing desire to carry out the attacks on a holiday such as Easter or Christmas to “kill more” people.
The undercover officer pretended to be an explosives expert and offered to craft two IEDs for the attacks. Shaikh arranged a meeting with the agent’s wife, who was also undercover, and handed off two bags that were meant to be returned with the bombs.
After canceling the second meetup, officers raided Shaikh’s home in October and arrested her. During an interview with police, investigators said she admitted to talking about the plot but said she wasn’t sure she was going to carry out the attacks.
The judge on Friday ordered that any psychiatric reports should be filed with the court by April 3, and Shaikh’s sentencing date was set for May 12.
