Mulu Girma, 35, tried to remain in the UK instead of facing deportation to Ethiopia

A former model turned jihadi who was jailed for helping the 21/7 Tube bombers was granted £1.4million in legal aid during her battle to evade justice.

Mulu Girma, 35, then received thousands more for her human rights fight to stay in the UK instead of facing deportation to her homeland Ethiopia - dwarfing the compensation victims received for the potentially catastrophic attack.

Girma, daughter of a Catholic diplomat, moved to London as a girl. In 2005, she was arrested by counter-terror police investigating a botched plot to kill Tube passengers on July 21, two weeks after the July 7 attack that murdered 52.

Three years later, she was jailed for ten years for helping her brother-in-law Hussain Osman flee London, dressing his wounds and destroying evidence.

Today, Freedom of information figures obtained by The Sun revealed that Girma received £1,435,090 in legal aid assisted to her crown court trial in 2008.

CCTV footage of Girma at a Shell petrol station in Brighton in 2005, reading a newspaper reporting the failed suicide bombings

She is believed to have successfully fought deportation - most likely on the grounds that returning to her homeland would breach of her human rights.

Police were watching an address linked to Osman when they followed and shot dead innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005.

Girma helped her brother-in-law Hussain Osman (pictured) flee London

Girma's sentence was reduced to five years on appeal and she was released in 2013.

But within months, she applied for a job with Southwark Council in South London, filling out a detailed application form for a job in the housing department.

When she ticked a box to confirm she had a criminal conviction, it should have raised a red flag. But no inquiries into her background were carried out and she did not reveal she had been jailed under the Terrorism Act.

She started as a trainee customer services assistant, and was promoted to 'systems and performance analyst' without further checks, even appearing on the cover of a council magazine.

Mulu Girma was recruited by Southwark Council in 2013, and is pictured on the front of the authority's housing news magazine

Girma, who had been living in a £186,000 flat in Dartford, Kent, was sacked in September 2017 after the council was alerted to her terrorist past.

July 21 bomber Osman was jailed for a minimum of 40 years in July 2007 along with Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed.

A fifth man, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, was later jailed for 33 years for conspiracy to cause explosions. Girma's sister Yeshi, of Stockwell, south London, brother Esayas and her boyfriend were also convicted of aiding Osman.

In 2011, a list of foreign-born terrorists in Britain was published, including Girma, her brother Esayas and sister Yeshiemebet as well as Siraj Ali, Omar's foster brother.