The Al-Qaeda inspired knife attacker who tried to murder MP Stephen Timms could be released from jail in a matter of months if her latest bid for freedom is successful.
Roshonara Choudhry was just 21 when she was radicalised as a university student and stabbed her local Labour MP Mr Timms, then 55, at a constituency surgery on May 14, 2010.
Choudhry, a Muslim of East Ham, east London, was found guilty of attempted murder and two counts of possessing a knife and was jailed for life at the Old Bailey.
Now 36 and having served her minimum sentence of 15 years, Choudhry hopes to be freed with her second application for parole.
However, the Army’s former chief in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, is concerned the ‘highly dangerous’ individual ‘has not changed her ways’.
‘I am seriously concerned she has not changed her ways. She manipulated those around her to the point she was able to launch such a horrendous attack. I fear she can never be reformed properly,’ he told The Mirror.
Choudhry was predicted to graduate King’s College London with a first class degree in English but dropped out just weeks before trying to kill Mr Timms.
She became radicalised after watching online sermons delivered by terror preachers and was inspired to kill Mr Timms because he has supported the Iraq war.
Roshonara Choudhry (pictured) was just 21 when she was radicalised as a university student and stabbed her local Labour MP Mr Timms, then 55, at a constituency surgery on May 14, 2010
She became radicalised after watching online sermons delivered by terror preachers and was inspired to kill Mr Timms (pictured) because he has supported the Iraq war
Choudhry stabbed Mr Timms with the top knife, a three-inch blade, and took along the five-inch blade below as a back-up in case the first broke
With a smile on her face, Choudhry pretended to shake the MP’s hand before stabbing him twice in the stomach with a three-inch kitchen knife, slicing his liver.
She also took a second five-inch blade with her as a back-up in case the first broke.
An aide and a security guard managed to stop her and Mr Timms was saved with emergency surgery.
Choudhry isolated herself in prison, refusing to see her family and friends and rejecting any visitors.
The judge at her trial, Mr Justice Cooke, said she would continue to be a risk to MPs after hearing she had made a list of those who voted in favour of the war in Iraq.
‘You do not suffer from any mental disease. You have simply committed evil acts coolly and deliberately,’ he added.
Mr Timms, now 69, later said: ‘My real worry is that a very bright young woman with everything to live for would reach the conclusion that she should throw it all away by attempting to kill the local MP.’
A report on Choudhry’s behaviour in prison said she had not raised any concerns and had attended anti-extremism courses.
CCTV footage shown at Choudhry’s Old Bailey trial revealed her, pictured right, entering Beckton Globe community centre on May 14 2010 carrying a bag containing her two knives
Choudhry, pictured in the bottom left-hand corner, is seen plunging a knife into Labour MP Stephen Timms, just out of shot
One of the two kitchen knives Choudhry packed to carry out the attack is shown circled
In 2023, the Justice Secretary at the time, Dominic Raab, refused the Parole Board recommendation to transfer her to an open prison.
The next parole panel may decide to release her or move her to an open jail.
A spokesperson for the board said: ‘The review has been directed to an oral hearing but there is no date yet.’
A source told The Mirror: ‘As this is the second attempt, there are fears she will be released. Nobody could see what she was planning, that shows how manipulative she was.’
Mr Timms, who is now minister for social security and disability, has revealed Choudhry had written several letters to him from prison.
In a previous interview, he explained: ‘In the third of them, she says she’s sorry about what happened.
‘So we’re in a restorative justice process which may lead to me meeting her before she’s released. I’d welcome that.’
In November 2009, Choudhry began downloading more than 100 hours of sermons and lectures by al-Awlaki in which he preached the need for ‘violent action to combat the atrocities of the West against Muslims around the world’.
A security guard managed to grab Choudhry, then 21, to end the violent assault on Mr Timms
Roshonara Choudhry, pictured here at Madame Tussaud’s in London with a waxwork Spiderman, became radicalised online before attempting to murder MP Stephen Timms
Dominic Raab intervened in early 2023 when Justice Secretary to block Roshonara Choudhury’s move to an open prison
He has claimed: ‘Assassinations, bombings, and acts of arson are all legitimate forms of revenge against a system that relishes the sacrilege of Islam in the name of freedom.’
In interviews with police, Choudhry explained how she had stumbled across his teachings on YouTube and went on to watch more than 100 hours of sermons.
She said: ‘I wasn’t searching for him, I just came across him. He explains things really comprehensively and in an interesting way so I thought I could learn a lot from him.
‘I was also surprised at how little I knew about my religion so that motivated me to learn more.’
She also said she did not attend a mosque but would ‘just pray at home’ and when asked he should talked about Islam with, she replied: ‘In general I just talk about it to my brothers and sisters but I don’t mention everything to them.’
Choudhry would watch two of the lectures each day and finished the complete set in the first week of May, days before the attack – with the sermons changing her views of the Iraq war and its backers, which had not been especially marked beforehand.
She also read a book recommended by Al-Awlaki called ‘The Book of Jihad’ by Ibn Nuhaas, with chapter titles such as ‘The virtues of killing a non-believer for the sake of Allah’.
Mr Timms, who is now minister for social security and disability, has revealed Choudhry had written several letters to him from prison
In November 2009, Choudhry began downloading more than 100 hours of sermons and lectures by al-Awlaki (pictured) in which he preached the need for ‘violent action to combat the atrocities of the West against Muslims around the world’
Choudhry identified radical Islamic website Revolutionmuslim.com as another source of inspiration.
The site published a list of MPs voting in favour of the Iraq war and urged Muslims to take up the ‘knife of jihad’ against them, explaining how to find constituency surgeries’ times and addresses ‘where you can encounter them in person’.
Choudhry methodically planned the attack, registering her local East Ham MP Mr Timms’s pro Iraq War views.
The pair had actually met three years earlier when she was part of a group of sixth-form students to whom he gave a tour of the Houses of Parliament – during which another girl kept asking about the war in Iraq.
Choudhry later recalled to police: ‘At the time I was thinking that she should be quiet and that she was embarrassing herself – I didn’t say anything to support her, I just sat there feeling embarrassed.
‘I guess I respected her for having the guts to say all these things to his face but I wasn’t brave enough to say anything, I just sat quietly.’
