An Islamic State terrorist will be sentenced later for a plot to kill the Prime Minister Theresa May.
Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 21, planned to bomb the gates of 10 Downing Street, kill guards and then attack Theresa May with a knife or gun.
He had pledged allegiance to IS and collected what he thought was an explosives-packed jacket and rucksack when he was arrested last November.
The drifter, originally from Birmingham, thought he was being helped by an IS handler when in fact he was talking to undercover officers.
He was snared by a network of undercover counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police, the FBI and MI5.
Following an Old Bailey trial, Rahman, from Finchley, north London, was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism in Britain.
Midway through the trial, he admitted helping a friend to join IS in Libya by recording an IS sponsorship video.
Two other uncles had been jailed in August 2016 for funding terrorism.
His concerned mother had moved to north London to get away from their influence, and Rahman was referred to the de-radicalisation Channel programme.
But Rahman spun a web of lies to Channel and went on to plot his attack over the course of two years.
In August last year he was arrested on suspicion of sending indecent images to under-age girls, but never charged.
An examination of his mobile phone raised concerns he was harbouring extremist views.
Rahman made contact with an FBI agent posing as an IS official online, who introduced him to an MI5 role-player.
The defendant revealed his plans, saying: “I want to do a suicide bomb on Parliament. I want to attempt to kill Theresa May.
“There are lorries here with big gas tankers, if a brother can drive it next to Parliament I will bomb.”
He later described using a suicide belt, a drone, an IED and poison, referred to as “P” or “curry mix”.
He told an undercover officer: “(God willing) will be very big if I’m successful. I can’t mess up. I can’t get (martyrdom) if I get caught.”
On November 18 last year, Rahman carried out reconnaissance around Whitehall.
Two days later, he bought a rucksack from Argos before meeting an undercover officer in Brixton for it to be fitted with explosives.
Rahman told the officer he was “good to go” but was arrested as he walked away carrying the fake bomb, in Kensington.
He faces the prospect of life behind bars when he is sentenced by Mr Justice Haddon-Cave at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Following Rahman’s conviction, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, from Scotland Yard, said: “His intention was to go to the gates of Number 10.
“If he had got hold of a genuine bomb, a gun, or a knife, we would have been talking about an individual who could have killed, injured and maimed a number of individuals in Whitehall.”
