IS Christmas bomb plot: Munir Mohammed and Rowaida el Hassan jailed

A couple who plotted an Islamic State-inspired bomb or poison attack over the Christmas holidays after meeting on a dating website have been jailed.

Sudanese asylum seeker Munir Mohammed was sentenced to life with a minimum of 14 years and his partner, pharmacist Rowaida el Hassan, was jailed for 12 years, plus five years on extended licence.

A court at the Old Bailey heard Mohammed, 36, from Derby, met Hassan, 33, of Willesden, north London on dating website SingleMuslim.com.

Mohammed, who volunteered for a "lone wolf" mission in the UK in a Facebook chat with an IS commander, enlisted "strong-willed" mother-of-two Hassan, who became his "wiling" partner.

The pair were found guilty of preparing terrorist acts between November 2015 and December 2016.

Mohammed, who arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry and claimed asylum in February 2014, had ricin and bomb-making manuals when he was arrested in December 2016.

Officers also found hydrogen peroxide in a wardrobe and hydrochloric acid in a freezer - two of the three ingredients needed to make TATP explosives.

Just days before he had failed to acquire acetone, the final component, after buying acetone-free nail varnish by mistake at an Asda store.

TATP, or acetone peroxide, was used by Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi last May in an attack that killed 22 children and adults.

Judge Michael Topolski QC highlighted Mohammed's "vast store" of IS propaganda, including nearly 26,000 images on his phone, some depicting "abhorrent" acts of murder.

Some of the videos were sent to Hassan, the judge said.

Judge Topolski told Mohammed: "You decided that yours would be a lone wolf attack. You decided the means of your attack would involve you making an IED.

"You had not decided whether that would be made with an ordinary bomb or whether you could do more damage and instil more terror by exploding a device containing ricin."

DCI Paul Greenwood, from Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: "Our investigation never revealed the full detail of their plans or their target.

"Only they know what their true intentions really were. Nevertheless, they were clearly conspiring to commit an attack in the UK."

Pauline Latham, Mid Derbyshire MP, criticised the leniency of Mohammed's sentence. She said: "He should have been looking at a minimum of 30 years, not a minimum of 14. This was somebody who was close to causing absolute carnage."