Aweys Shikhey, 38, spoke of shooting Jews in Stamford Hill, north London, and football supporters with an AK47
A delivery driver who talked about launching a gun attack on Tottenham Hotspur fans and the Queen has been found guilty of trying to join ISIS.
Aweys Shikhey, 38, a Dutch national originally from Somalia, spoke of shooting Jews in Stamford Hill, north London, and football supporters with an AK47 as they left Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium White Hart Lane.
The delivery driver, who has two wives – one in Holland and one in Kenya – was planning to elope with his jihadi fiancée and travel from London to Turkey, and then on to Syria.
The ISIS fan tried to raise money for his trip by applying for various loans, securing £10,000 from Barclays for a ‘wedding’.
He borrowed more money from his boss after telling him he needed it to visit his two wives and children in Holland and Kenya.
In the months leading up to his arrest, Shikhey had been messaging Raaqiya Hussein, a Somalian living in Norway who awaits trial for terror offences.
Shikhey admitted he wanted to marry Hussein and live in a country under Sharia law, but insisted he had ‘no interest’ in fighting for the Islamic State.
But prosecutor Barnaby Jameson described Shikhey as ‘a terrorist hiding in plain sight’.
He added that Shikhey ‘was a secret and indeed eager supporter of Islamic State’.
Shikhey was detained by counter-terror officers at Stansted Airport on May 23 last year as he was due to board a flight to Istanbul.
The Dutch national was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism by an Old Bailey jury today after a six day trial.
Shikhey was detained by counter-terror officers at Stansted Airport on May 23 last year as he was due to board a flight to Istanbul before heading to Syria
Judge Martin Edmunds, QC, remanded Shikhey in custody ahead of sentence next month.
Mr Jameson detailed a series of messages between Shikhey and Kenya-based Somalian Abdirahman Idrissa Hassan, who was arrested in Kenya for terrorist offences in September 2016.
His terrorist mindset was revealed in encrypted chat on Threema and Telegram with Hassan.
In one of the texts Hassan told Shikhey: ‘May God bestow you in killing David Cameron and the old woman Elizabeth.’
‘God willing,’ replied Shikhey. After discussing getting a hold of guns and bullets, Shikhey and Hassan exchanged messages about shooting Jewish people and Spurs fans.
Shikhey commented: ‘It is good to shoot them live’. He then told Hassan three or five people were needed to ‘carry out a bloody attack’ and it would be best to find AK47s and other automatic weapons.
Shikhey declared: ‘I do not have anything as long as I am in a disbeliever country.
‘This is my first job and I will migrate for the sake of God. I am not coming back to this dirty people, God Willing.’ Hassan said: ‘Correct’.
Shikhey replied: ‘May Allah reward you, you make me happy and I am feeling that I am fighting in Fallujah.’
Shikhey left a farewell message for his fiancee Hussein at 7.06pm on May 23, the day of his flight to Turkey.
He said: ‘Raqiya you know that I love you, do not be upset because at the airport the enemy of God are waiting for us.
‘I want you to give a pleasant farewell and let’s hope that we will be those who share happiness in the world after dead.
‘I do not want you to worry and this is my voice also I will call you before travelling and when I arrive at airport.
‘Also I will give the mobile to the man, God will. Be strong, pray for me and I will do the same.’ Shikhey was arrested at Stansted Airport at 11.40pm.
Evidence from Hussein’s phone suggested she was in contact with Islamic State fighters and sympathisers.
She also had bomb-making instructions including a step-by-step guide on how to make explosives in a kitchen sink.
On May 23 a screenshot was taken on Hussein’s mobile reading: ‘The Islamic State Immigration Authority Application Form for the Coordination of Migrants’.
Hussein is the applicant, with her surname shown as ‘Oum Seyfullah Aomaliya’ – translating as ‘Mother of the Sword of God’.
Shikley’s father-in-law and previous employers – a Tottenham internet shop and delivery service DPD – had no reason to suspect he was anything but a reliable, hard-working man.
But Mr Jameson said: ‘There was an extremist agenda going on behind the scenes. The face he presented to the world was different to the one behind closed doors.
‘The defendant was so eager he was willing to leave behind his life and his job to join Islamic State as a front line combatant.’
He and Hassan discussed killing Jews in nearby Stamford Hill, known for its Jewish community.
Shikhey said he wanted to ‘put himself forward against Saturday people’ in July 2016, jurors heard.
The prosecutor said: ‘This, as you will see in due course, is a reference to Jewish people.’
Continuing the conversation, Hassan says: ‘I want to ask you… Can you buy bullets in the UK?’
Shikhey replied, suggesting they can only be smuggled, adding: ‘Three or five people are needed who are connected to each other, who can carry out a bloody attack.
Shikhey said it would be better if an AK-47, M16 and BKM can be found – all references to automatic weapons – which could have been taken to Stamford Hill when people are leaving a Spurs match.
Shikhey, of Woodside Gardens, Tottenham, north London, denied preparing for acts of terrorism but was convicted by the jury.
He was remanded into custody ahead of sentence on March 15.
Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: ‘To his friends and colleagues Shikhey was, on the face of it, leading a normal life here in London.
‘But unbeknown to them and to his wife and family in Holland, he was a supporter of Daesh and had for about a year been planning how he could leave the UK and travel out to join Daesh.
‘Thanks to the information we received from the Kenyan authorities and the good work here by my detectives thereafter, we have been able to thwart his attempts and stop him from joining Daesh and committing terrorist acts over there.’