Tea party terror attack plotter Safaa Boular becomes youngest convicted female Islamic State terrorist
An 18-year-old has been convicted of plotting a Mad Hatter-inspired terror attack on the streets of London with Britain's first all-woman cell.
Upon the guilty verdict on Monday, Safaa Boular became Britain's youngest convicted so-called Islamic State terrorist.
Boular secretly discussed the murderous scheme with her sister and mother using coded language from children's classic Alice in Wonderland.
Having been prevented from joining her IS husband in Syria, Boular envisaged a grenade and gun attack on the British Museum.
But she was forced to pass the plans to her sister after she was arrested for trying to travel to Syria.
A jury at the Old Bailey found Boular guilty of planning terror attacks both in the UK and abroad.
Her fellow plotters had previously pleaded guilty before Boular's trial.
Scotland Yard said the women were snared in a "proactive" investigation involving surveillance by terrorism police and MI5 agents posing online as IS operatives.
During the trial, jurors heard how Boular was just 16 when she was wooed online by Coventry-born IS fighter Naweed Hussain, 32.
The couple got married in an online ceremony and talked of donning his-and-hers suicide belts to achieve martyrdom together.
Police uncovered Boular's plans to join him following an airport stop in August 2016 and confiscated her passport.
It was then that Boular turned her attention to an attack on the British Museum, encouraged by Hussain.
She scoped out the MI6 headquarters near her home, and took a selfie in front of the building, the court heard.
Hussain was lured into revealing his murderous intentions to British secret service agents posing as IS supporters online before he was killed in a drone strike.
When an agent pretending to be his commander informed Boular of his death on April 4 last year, she was wracked by grief and resolved to join him.
She revealed to the undercover officer that Hussain had talked about attacking the British Museum with a "tokarev" Russian-made pistol and "pineapples" - code for grenades.
On being remanded in custody over her attempt to travel to Syria, Boular persuaded fellow IS supporter Rizlaine Boular, 22 to take up the baton.
In coded telephone calls involving their mother Mina Dich, 44, the sisters discussed a traditional English tea party with an Alice in Wonderland theme.Rizlaine Boular said she knew "a few recipes for some amazing cakes" for a "proper like English tea party kind of thing".
Safaa Boular suggested a "Alice in Wonderland theme" telling her sister: "You can be the Mad Hatter 'cause your hair's crazy."
Mother-of-four Dich responded: "That will be fun."
Rizlaine Boular then set about reconnaissance around the Palace of Westminster, and bought knives and a rucksack from Sainsbury's.
She was accompanied by Dich, unaware that they were under surveillance by counter-terrorism police.
Rizlaine Boular shared her plans with her friend Khawla Barghouthi, 21, and even practised a knife attack at her home in Willesden, north west London.
She was shot when armed police moved in to arrest the gang but went on to make a full recovery.
Rizlaine Boular, and Dich, from Vauxhall, south London, pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism and Barghouthi admitted failing to alert authorities.
Counter-terrorism chief Dean Haydon said the case demonstrated a worrying rise in youngsters being arrested for terrorism.
He said: "This was without doubt a major investigation, a proactive investigation.
"This involved a family with murderous intent, the first all-female terrorist plot in the UK connected to Daesh."