A couple who met on a lonely hearts website planned to carry out an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack over Christmas.

The pair, who were found guilty at the Old Bailey on Monday (January 8), plotted to cause carnage with a homemade bomb or ricin attack.

36-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, Munir Mohammed put himself forward for a "lone wolf" UK mission while chatting to a man he believed to be an ISIS commander on Facebook.

He enlisted the help of Brent pharmacist, Rowaida El-Hassan, 33, after seeking her out on SingleMuslim.com.

Mohammed drew on El-Hassan's knowledge of chemicals needed to make a bomb.

At the time of his arrest last December, Mohammed had two of the three components for TATP explosives as well as manuals on how to make explosives, mobile phone detonators, and deadly ricin poison.

The Old Bailey

Mohammed of Leopold Street, Derby, and El-Hassan of Willesden Lane, Brent, denied preparing terrorist acts between November 2015 and December 2016.

But following an Old Bailey trial, a jury found the pair guilty of the plot.

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