Lewis Ludlow, 26, planned to kill around 100 people in a terror attack on London’s Oxford Street or nearby Madame Tussauds before police foiled the plot
A British-born Muslim convert who plotted to kill hundreds of shoppers outside of a Disney Store in London has pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey.
Lewis Ludlow, 26, planned to kill around 100 people in a terror attack on London’s Oxford Street or nearby Madame Tussauds before police foiled the plot.
Between March 15 and April 19, Ludlow, who swore allegiance to Islamic State as he prepared to drive a van through busy crowds, bought a phone under a false name and wrote down his attack plans – which were later found ripped up in a bin.
He also researched potential targets around the capital, van rental and hotel accommodation.
He identified Oxford Street as an ‘ideal’ target, writing: ‘It is expected nearly 100 could be killed in the attack’.
Ludlow, from Rochester, in Kent, formulated his plan after being stopped by police at Heathrow airport in February as he attempted to board a flight to the Philippines.
It was alleged he also set up a Facebook account called Antique Collections as a front to send money to south east Asia for terrorism.
The defendant was due to face trial in the autumn on two charges of preparing acts of terrorism and one of terror funding.
A security van carrying terror suspect Lewis Ludlow leaves court in London today
But at a hearing before Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC at the Old Bailey, he pleaded guilty to plotting an attack in the UK and funding IS abroad.
Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC said it would not be in the public interest to pursue a trial on a charge of attempting to join IS in the Philippines which the defendant denied. That charge will lie on the court file.
Appearing in court in May, Mark Dawson, prosecuting, said investigators believe he was groomed over the internet by a shadowy recruiter.
He said the main allegation focused on ‘a large-scale, multiple-casualty, vehicle-borne assault, perhaps in the Oxford Street area of London’.
Ludlow was prevented from flying to the Philippines in February where police believe he wanted to reach an area controlled by Islamic State fanatics.
The court was told he was accused of trying to fund terrorism under the guise of an antiques firm.
A second charge accused him of setting up a Facebook account to illicitly transfer money.
In the third and most serious charge he was accused of plotting an attack on the capital.
When the charges were read to him he said confidently after each one: ‘I declare myself innocent of that charge.’
Police sealed off his house in Rochester, Kent in May
Fellow worshippers at a mosque in Chatham, Kent, said Ludlow converted at the age of 17 and had been a regular at Friday prayers.
They said he took the name Ali Hussein and would bring traditional Islamic clothes in a bag to the mosque to change into.
Neighbours of his semi-detached former council house said he worked Christmas shifts at a Royal Mail sorting office. They said he was interested in computers and spent long periods on social media, including Facebook.
Lukasz Pachiarek, 36, said: ‘He was always wearing dark and he always wore a hood. His head was shaved and he had a big beard, so that was pretty Islamic.’
Another neighbour suggested that Ludlow may have had a form of autism that made him impressionable. She said: ‘He changed his appearance. He grew a beard, he was wearing the full gear. He wore a robe.
‘I would see people knock at the door with the gear on, what I call a gown. But then he changed back to normal. He still had a beard.
‘He was a nice boy.’
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