Would-be teacher gets life for trying to murder MP with knife

Roshonara Choudhry was only months away from completing her degree at Kings College London when she began watching radical online lectures by suspected terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki.

One lecturer said "the world was her oyster" but Choudhry decided that she would rather become a martyr.

Yesterday she was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years for stabbing the East Ham Labour MP twice in the stomach during a constituency surgery in east London on May 14, pretending she was going to shake hands before plunging the knife into his body in what is thought to be the first al Qaida-inspired attempt to assassinate a politician on British soil.

After being arrested she told detectives the stabbing was "punishment" and "to get revenge for the people of Iraq". Another knife was found in her bag which she said she had planned to use if the first one broke. She had also drawn up a list of other MPs who had voted for military action in Iraq.

Choudhry, of Central Park Road, East Ham, east London, was found guilty of attempted murder and two counts of having an offensive weapon.

Jeremy Dein QC, defending, said her radicalisation had taken place "over a short period" before buying two knives for 1 each from an east London kitchen ware shop and taking a bus to carry out the attack.

The 21-year-old, who had no previous convictions and was said to have been of "exemplary character", was in the third year of an English and Communications degree but had dropped out three weeks before. She would later tell police she quit the college because it was involved in "things where they work against Muslims".

Sentencing her yesterday, Mr Justice Cooke said if she had succeeded in killing Mr Timms he would have given her a whole-life sentence, meaning she would never be released.

"It is not only possible, but I also hope that you will come to understand the distorted nature of your thinking, the evil that you have done and planned to do, and repent of it," he said. "You do not suffer from any mental disease. You have simply committed evil acts coolly and deliberately."

As a result of the case, hundreds of videos inciting violence have been removed from YouTube.

Last night more were being examined.