Youngest woman convicted of terror plot being sentenced in Mad Hatter case

Undated handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of Safaa Boular as she has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of plotting a terror attack on London with BritainÕs first all-woman terror cell. Boular is the youngest female to be charged with plann Credit: Press Association Images

The youngest woman to be convicted of plotting a terror attack on British soil is facing years behind bars.

Safaa Boular, 18, hid her Islamic State-inspired plans in coded conversations about preparations for an innocent Mad Hatter’s tea party.

She is the final member of Britain’s first all-woman terror cell to be sentenced at the Old Bailey.

Boular was sitting her GCSEs when she was seduced online by IS fighter Naweed Hussain, who was originally from Coventry.

After she was stopped from joining the 32-year-old in Syria, she discussed a grenade and gun attack on the British Museum instead.

Their plans were uncovered by online MI5 role-players and the Boular family home in Vauxhall, south London, was bugged.

Boular’s resolve was strengthened when she learned Hussain had been killed in a drone strike in early April last year.

While in custody for trying to travel to the war zone, she passed the baton to her older sibling Rizlaine.

Rizlaine Boular took up the mantle from her younger sister Safaa Credit: Metrpolitan Police/PA

In coded telephone calls, they discussed a traditional English tea party with an Alice in Wonderland theme, the trial heard.

Rizlaine Boular then set about arming herself and looking at targets around the Palace of Westminster.

She was helped by her mother Mina Dich, unaware they were being watched by counter-terrorism police.

Mother Mina Dich helped in Rizlaine’s terror preparations Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA

The older sister shared her plans with her friend Khawla Barghouthi, 21, and even practised the knife attack at her home in Willesden, north-west London.

Rizlaine, 22, was shot when armed police moved in to arrest the gang on April 27 last year but made a full recovery.

She was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years, having admitted preparing acts of terrorism.

Dich, 44, from Vauxhall Cross, south London, was jailed for six years and nine months with an additional five years on licence for helping her.

Khawla Barghouthi was also jailed Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA

Barghouthi, who pleaded guilty to failing to alert authorities, was jailed for two years and four months.

Following a trial Safaa Boular was found guilty of two counts of preparing terrorist acts.

She will be sentenced at the Old Bailey by Judge Mark Dennis QC on Friday.