Safiyya Amira Shaikh

Safiyya Amira Shaikh, formerly Michelle Ramsden, is a British woman convicted of plotting to bomb St Paul's Cathedral in London. She is thought to be the first lone female Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) bomb plotter in the UK. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2020. A former company director,

Support for terrorism By 2016, Shaikh had come under surveillance by police and MI5. She was referred at least three times to the deradicalisation programme Prevent, but ceased participating each time. Shaikh became active on "multiple social media platforms" and had set up an account named ' GreenB1rds' on the encrypted Telegram Messenger app; encouraging violent attacks in both the UK and abroad, and disseminating pro-ISIL propaganda. She had enjoyed watching ISIL beheading videos, glorified terrorist atrocities, had been in contact with convicted British jihadist Anjem Choudary, and had listened to lectures by extremist imam Anwar Al-Awlaki. Shaikh had initially planned to plant explosives at St Paul's at Christmas 2019, but put it back to Easter 2020.

On 18 August 2019, Shaikh was stopped from boarding a flight to Amsterdam at Luton Airport. Her ticket had been bought for her by Yousra Lemouesset, a Netherlands-based, ISIL-supporting terrorist who was subsequently convicted.

Shaikh was given a life sentence, with a non-parole period of fourteen years.