Boular was pictured on CCTV outside MI6’s HQ, the court heard
A teenager accused of planning an ISIS-directed terrorist attack with her mother and older sister, conducted surveillance of the MI6 building, while under surveillance herself, a court has heard.
Safaa Boular, now 18, from Vauxhall, South London, denies plotting Britain’s first all-female terrorist attack, under instructions from Syria, which she dubbed the ‘Madhatters Tea Party’,
She lived with her mother and younger sister in a block of flats opposite the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), known as MI6.
Boular thought the building was occupied by the domestic Security Service, MI5, and had installed a series of security applications on her phone, on the advice of a group calling themselves the Cyber Caliphate, the Old Bailey heard.
But she was stopped as she returned from a family holiday in Morocco and police examined the phone and discovered that she was planning to marry a British jihadist with ISIS called Naweed Hussain.
Safaa Boular was put under surveillance and undercover officers saw her apparently taking pictures of the MI6 building
The jury was told that Boular could be seen in CCTV footage taken from inside the MI6 building dressed in a black hijab with her faced covered
She told police that she planned to marry him over Skype, using her mother’s laptop, and then go with her mother to collect her GCSE results and manufacture an argument in order to run off to Syria.
Boular admitted that she had made between 300 and 400 ISIS ‘friends’ on Instagram and was speaking to Hussain for up to 12 hours a day on Kik and Telegram.
In the last of a series of interviews with officers between August and November 2016, Boular told them: ‘Now that I’m away from talking to these people, I’ve noticed that there’s other things that I have to prioritise, in my deen, in my religion, you know, being kind to your neighbour and stuff like that.’
The officer told her: ‘OK, maybe you’re all grown up then…perhaps.’
Nevertheless, when she was released on bail, Boular was put under surveillance, and on December 11 2016, undercover officers saw her leaving her block of flats at St George’s Wharf and walking through the underpass to the Vauxhall Cross building.
There they saw her holding her mobile phone at chest height and apparently taking a photograph of the building.
She was seen again doing the same thing 17 minutes later at 1.40pm.
CCTV was examined from inside the building, in which Boular could be seen in a black hijab with face covered, grey robe and black slippers.
A camera labeled ‘Cam 14, ice cream parlour’ and another labeled ‘Cam 50, bridge ped walkway’ showed her walking through under the pass at 1.26pm and returning a minute later, with the phone in her hand and walking up the steps to the embankment.
Boular’s phone was found to have a still image of her with a gloved hand, and clenched fist, in front of the MI6 building (pictured), prosecutors say
Police raided the family home the next day, and seized a Samsung Galaxy J3 from the settee in the lounge.
On the phone they found a still image taken on her phone at 1.27pm the day before, which showed her with a gloved hand, clenching a fist, in front of the MI6 building.
There was also an image from December 2 2016 of a poppy and an armed man with the words: ‘She fell in love with a Mujahid.’
Boular was eventually charged with attempting to join the fighting in Syria, but she allegedly passed the mission on to her mother and sister from inside prison.
Her sister Rizlaine, 22, and her mother, Mina Dich, 44 have admitted prpearing acts of terrorism.
Boular denies the same charges and the case continues.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.