By Tony Grew - 3rd November 2010
A woman who stabbed former Treasury minister Stephen Timms at a constituency surgery was today sentenced to life in prison.
Roshonara Choudhry, 21, will serve a mimimum term of 15 years.
Yesterday she was found guilty of attempted murder and two counts of having an offensive weapon.
On May 14 she approached Timms at a surgery in Beckton Globe community centre in his East Ham constituency and stabbed him twice in the stomach.
During her trail it was revealed she had become 'radicalised' after watching internet sermons by extremist Anwar al-Awlaki, who has links to Al Qaeda.
At the Old Bailey today Mr Justice Cooke told her that she had ruined her life.
"You said it was worth it," he said.
"You said you wanted to be a martyr."
When asked by police why she had stabbed Timms, Choudhry said: "I was not going to stop until someone made me. I wanted to kill him.
"I was going to get revenge for the people of Iraq."
It emerged during the trial that Choudhry had drawn up a list of other MPs who backed the invasion of Iraq.
Sentencing her, Mr Justice Cooke said:
"There is no remorse on your part and you refuse to recognise the jurisdiction of this court over you in respect of your attempts to murder the person chosen by your fellow constituents in the East End of London, including Muslims, to represent them in the democratic institutions of government in this country."
Timms has represented East Ham since 1997.
In 2010 he was re-elected with more than 70 per cent of the vote and a swing against the national trend of nearly eight per cent with a majority of 27,826, the biggest in the country.
He has said he first got involved in politics because of his Christian faith.
While well-liked by MPs on all sides of the House, Timms failed in his bid to be elected to the shadow cabinet.
Ed Miliband subsequently appointed him as a shadow work and pensions minister.
Today the judge paid tribute to him.
"I understand that he brings to bear his own faith, which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant," Mr Justice Cooke told the Old Bailey.
"Those values are those upon which the common law of this country was founded and include respect and love for one's neighbour, for the foreigner in the land, and for those who consider themselves enemies, all as part of one's love of God.
"These values were the basis of our system of law and justice and I trust that they will remain so as well as motivating those, like Mr Timms, who hold public office."
Article Comments
At last! - a judge with balls!
I do not understand why she did not target Tony Blair - the public would have been supporting her then.
Alan Bailey
3rd Nov 2010 at 5:08 pm
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.