A woman who fantasised about beheading Katie Hopkins and wanted the leader of Britain First murdered has been convicted of terrorism offences.
Madihah Taheer, 22, from Birmingham, bought a large combat knife for her husband to use in a UK attack and urging him to “kill people for me”.
She also allowed her debit card to be used to buy a lifelike training dummy so that her husband, Ummariyat Mirza, 21, could practise an attack, prosecutors said.
The dummy was found in the couple’s Birmingham home with slash marks on the forehead, across the throat and abdomen.
Mirza had been researching potential targets on his mobile phone including a military base in Birmingham.
Prosecutors said text messages the pair had sent each other, in which they threatened violence and discussed the situation in Syria, demonstrated that they were inspired by so called Islamic State.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that Mirza made Taheer return the first dummy she bought as it was not the model he wanted. He sent her a video so she would know the right one to buy.
In messages from September 2015, pre-dating the offence and before they were married, Taheer wrote: “I want u to kill ppl for me. I have a list.”
Mirza replied: “The day of [marriage] I’ll kill em all. Give me the list.”
The list contained the names of Katie Hopkins and Paul Golding, the leader of far-right group Britain First.
“I fantasise about Katie Hopkins’ head,” Taheer told her husband. “She’s the biggest kuthi [bitch] of them all.”
So sorry you are going down Madihah. Expect to do a whole lot more of that on the inside. https://t.co/J9jwIIjJTs pic.twitter.com/L9zlvDB3MA
In October 2015, Mirza said he wanted to stab someone they both knew 27 times. Taheer responded that “sounds so satisfying”.
Mirza was arrested in March this year and pleaded guilty to preparing for terrorist acts at a hearing in September. Taheer was convicted on Thursday of the same charge.
Sue Hemming, Head of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said in a statement there was little doubt Mirza had the knife to carry out an attack in Britain.
“The prosecution’s case was that his wife was a willing accomplice who bought the knife knowing what he was planning to do,” she added.
“This couple posed a serious threat to the public in Britain and now face the prospect of time in prison …”
The couple, along with Mirza’s older sister Zainab who admitted sending him terrorist material, will be sentenced later.
They will be sentenced on December 1 at the same court.