Safaa Boular, Britain's youngest woman to be convicted of plotting a terror attack, has been jailed today

The youngest woman to be convicted of plotting a terror attack on British soil has been jailed for life.

Schoolgirl Safaa Boular wanted to become a jihadi bride in Syria, but started plotting an attack in London after the ISIS fighter she planned to marry was killed in an air strike.

The 18-year-old wanted to carry out a grenade and gun attack on the British Museum and was backed by her fundamentalist mother Mina Dich and sister Rizlaine in the UK's first all-female terror cell.

The teenager hid her plans in coded conversations about preparations for an apparently innocent 'Mad Hatter's tea party'.

But after an Old Bailey jury convicted her of being a terrorist, she was sentenced life imprisonment today and ordered to serve at least 13 years behind bars.

Safaa's lawyers told the court the teenager - who normally wore a burka but changed into Western clothes throughout her trial - had been 'groomed' into Islamist ideas and is now 'no longer a Muslim'.

But Judge Mark Dennis QC questioned how much she had really changed her views and said she knew what she was doing when she plotted the attack.

Boular, pictured bottom left, with her mother and sister before the trio began plotting carnage

Mother Mina Dich, right, helped with reconnaissance trips and bought knives and sister Rizlaine, left, planned to carry on the terror attack plans after Safaa was arrested

The judge said: 'In my view there's insufficient evidence to say at this stage this defendant is a truly transformed individual. Her views were deeply entrenched.

'However much she may have been influenced and drawn into extremism, it appeared she knew what she was doing and acted with open eyes.'

He pointed out that she still blamed the US for ISIS executions when questioned about them a month ago, and played a 'leading role' in the terror plans.

The judge also slammed the influence of Boular's mother after lawyers said the teenage jihadi grew up in 'terribly damaging household'.

He said: 'By 2012, 2013, a new theme had emerged in the family, namely Mina Dich's increasing move towards a conservative and ultimately more extreme version of the Islamic faith.

'This affected not only her mindset and approach to daily life.. but also that of her daughters.

'It is apparent that the defendant and Rizlaine became increasingly exposed to these extremist views.'

The teenager took selfies outside the MI6 building in London as she plotted the terror attack

Boular was sitting her GCSEs when she was seduced online by ISIS fighter Naweed Hussain, who was originally from Coventry.

After she was stopped from joining the 32-year-old in Syria, she discussed a grenade and gun attack on the British Museum instead.

Their plans were uncovered by online MI5 role-players and the Boular family home in Vauxhall, south London, was bugged.

Boular's resolve was strengthened when she learned Hussain had been killed in a drone strike in early April last year.

While in custody for trying to travel to the war zone, she passed the baton to her older sibling Rizlaine.

In coded telephone calls, they discussed a traditional English tea party with an Alice in Wonderland theme, the trial heard.

Boular had planned to marry ISIS fighter Naweed Hussain and become a suicide bomber in Syria but started plotting an attack in London when he was killed in an air strike

Terror sisters listened to Anjem Choudary sermons The often shocking trial of Safaa Boular heard she ran away from home in 2014 after feeling 'crazy, jealous' at schoolfriends who could talk to boys and 'wear what they wanted'. Rizlaine, her older sister had become increasingly radicalised in the toxic atmosphere home where it was normal to blame the sins of the world on the 'kafir' and the decadence of the West. Two months after Safaa ran away from home in August 2014, Rizlaine was caught trying to join ISIS in Istanbul and flown back to the UK. By the time of the Paris terror attacks in November 2015 Safaa too was fully radicalised and in contact with prolific ISIS recruiter Umm Isa Al-Amriki who was living there. Rizlaine also downloaded a stash of extremist material published by ISIS and Al Qaeda as well as content from radical preachers including Anjem Choudary and Mohammed Mizanur Rahman. Advertisement

Rizlaine Boular then set about arming herself and looking at targets around the Palace of Westminster.

She was helped by her mother Mina Dich, unaware they were being watched by counter-terrorism police.

The older sister shared her plans with her friend Khawla Barghouthi, 21, and even practised the knife attack at her home in Willesden, north-west London.

Rizlaine, 22, was shot when armed police moved in to arrest the gang on April 27 last year but made a full recovery.

She was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years, having admitted preparing acts of terrorism.

Dich, 44, from south London, was jailed for six years and nine months with an additional five years on licence for helping her.

Barghouthi, who pleaded guilty to failing to alert authorities, was jailed for two years and four months.

Following a trial Safaa Boular was found guilty of two counts of preparing terrorist acts.