Image copyright Met Police A supporter of the banned Islamic State terror group has admitted plotting to blow herself up in a bomb attack on St Paul’s Cathedral.
Safiyya Shaikh, of Hayes, west London, went on a reconnaissance trip to scope out the London landmark and a hotel.
The 36-year-old, born Michelle Ramsden, was arrested after asking an undercover police officer to supply bombs.
At the Old Bailey she admitted preparing an act of terrorism and will be sentenced in May.
Over the two months before her arrest in October 2019, Shaikh built up a relationship with two undercover officers who were posing as a husband and wife extremist team.
She messaged one of them via an encrypted social media app.
‘Bomb under the dome’
“I want to kill a lot,” she told the officer. “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.”
She sent a picture of St Paul’s Cathedral to the officer and wrote: “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, writing: “I will to the bomb under the dome.
“I will also do something in hotel, then church, then kill til I’m dead.”
Prosecutors say she gave two bags which she wanted to be fitted with homemade bombs to the female undercover officer.
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