What happened to the world's most wanted woman, the White Widow? How Samantha Lewthwaite was linked to terror attacks overseas and extremist network - as her flatmate is hauled back to the UK
The British terror suspect linked to the notorious 'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite last night arrived back in the UK after spending years locked up in a Kenyan jail.
Jermaine Grant was deported back to Britain on Thursday accompanied by Kenyan officials and immediately arrested after touching down at Heathrow Airport.
Grant, 41, is thought to have links to feared jihadi extremist Samantha Lewthwaite, the wife of 7/7 terrorist bomber Germaine Lindsay.
The 40-year-old mother-of-four, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, is among the world's most wanted women and has been on the run for more than a decade.
Her nickname among intelligence agencies is the 'White Widow', and she has been linked with a string of terror atrocities in Africa that have caused the deaths of more than 400 people.
Samantha Lewthwaite, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, is among the world's most wanted women and has been on the run for more than a decade
Her nickname among intelligence agencies is the 'White Widow', and she has been linked with a string of terror atrocities in Africa that have caused the deaths of more than 400 people
Jermaine Grant (sitting in the dock in court in Mombasa, Kenya) was deported back to Britain on Thursday accompanied by Kenyan officials and immediately arrested after touching down at Heathrow Airport
Lewthwaite's suicide bomber husband Germaine Lindsay, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, killed 26 people as well as himself on an underground train during the 7/7 bombings in London.
His wife was born in County Down, Northern Ireland, in 1983. She converted to Islam aged 17, before becoming radicalised and taking the name Sherafiyah after her parents' divorce.
The on-the-run fugitive has been evading the authorities for years, with Interpol still having an international 'Red Notice' out for her arrest.
She was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others.
Security services believe her other atrocities include the slaughter of 148 people by gunmen at a university in 2015.
She is believed to have fled the UK for South Africa in 2009, later crossing into Tanzania in 2011 and then Kenya on a fake passport, before investigators tracked her to an al-Shabaab stronghold in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab is a terrorist group from the UK, operating across Somalia and Kenya.
She spent seven years with her fourth husband, a Somalia warlord known as 'Sheikh Hassan', before splitting from him and fleeing to Yemen.
Jermaine Grant (centre, in a plaid shirt) is led away to begin his sentence on bomb-making charges in 2019
Lewthwaite is the widow of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay, who killed himself and 25 other detonating a bomb on an Underground train in London (pictured: walking wounded following the attack)
Samantha Lewthwaite pictured with her husband, 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay
Security sources warn Samantha Lewthwaite may be hiding alongside jihadist-sympathisers in Yemen following her split from her partner of seven years
Security sources say Lewthwaite, who was the daughter of a British solider during Northern Ireland's Troubles, fled from a 'no-go' area in Somalia after their breakup.
In January 2022, she was linked to a move to Yemen - a known terrorist hotspot.
Intelligence services believed she is living in a jihadi-sympathising stronghold, where she wears a full niqab and gloves to conceal her identity.
One security source told the Mirror: '[Lewthwaite] and Sheikh Hassan are no longer together – it is thought they are divorced. She had protection from his family in a no-go area in Somalia.
'But now she is not welcome and has gone back to al-Qaeda-controlled Yemen. She got there in a dhow sailing vessel.'
In Yemen, she is understood to have recruited female suicide bombers with bribes of £3,000. She is also thought to have sent male suicide bombers as young as 15, high on heroin, to their deaths.
London University graduate Lewthwaite reportedly altered her appearance through plastic surgery and piled on weight in a bid to remain unrecognised.
She has pledged to raise all of her four children, who have three different fathers, as jihadists.
As a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist cleric Trevor Forrest, or Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, through whom she met Lindsay, who killed himself and 26 others in 2005.
Pictured is the Interpol red notice out against the White Widow on August 9, 2024
Grant (left) was reportedly radicalised in the same British prison as 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid (right)
Kenyan police issued an arrest warrant in 2012 for a woman using the fake name of 'Natalie Faye Webb', who was travelling on a fraudulent South African passport.
It's believed she obtained the passport through her links with underground terror groups, and was smuggled around Africa to avoid detection, before she fled to Yemen.
Her Interpol Red Notice lists her as wanted for being in possession of explosives and for conspiracy to commit a felony.
Lewthwaite' story is also set to be made into a film, with The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey set to take on the role of the mysterious and infamous modern day figures.
The Girl Next Door will be written and directed by Bruce Goodison and will centre around the White Widow's life and how she became one of the world's most wanted women.
Lewthwaite's former flat mate was apprehended by Kenyan authorities in 2011 after they found bomb-making materials in his flat in Mombasa.
He was then sentenced to four years in prison in 2019, to be served alongside a separate nine-year sentence for forgery. They believed he had been planning a bombing campaign against hotels popular with foreign tourists.
Prosecutors then lodged a case with Kenya's High Court to have him deported to Britain once he had served his sentence.
He had previously been apprehended in 2008 over a plot to attack a police base on a bus trying to enter Somalia while dressed in a burka.
Investigators found chemicals, switches and a manual on explosives in the apartment, which he is believed to have shared with Lewthwaite, known as the White Widow. He was also carrying a forged Canadian passport.
When police swooped on Grant's flat Lewthwaite had fled, escaping just minutes earlier after Grant allegedly warned her with a text message.
It read: 'The lions are inside. One of them is very watchful, like a bird watches a stone.'
He is thought to have become radicalised as a teenager in the same British prison where 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid first turned to Islam. Reid is serving a life sentence in the US for plotting to blow up a transatlantic flight.
'White Widow' Sam Lewthwaite, the world's most wanted woman
Samantha Lewthwaite, originally of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was the wife of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay and is thought to be behind scores of suicide attacks across Africa and the Middle East.
Interpol issued a Red Notice warrant for her arrest after she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others.
Security services believe her other atrocities include the slaughter of 148 people by gunmen at a university in 2015.
Samantha Lewthwaite, originally of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was the wife of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay and is thought to be behind scores of suicide attacks across Africa and the Middle East
Interpol issued a Red Notice warrant for her arrest after she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others
In Yemen, she is understood to have recruited female suicide bombers with bribes of £3,000. She is also thought to have sent male suicide bombers as young as 15, high on heroin, to their deaths.
London University graduate Lewthwaite reportedly altered her appearance through plastic surgery and piled on weight in a bid to remain unrecognised.
She has pledged to raise all of her four children, who have three different fathers, as jihadists.
As a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist cleric Trevor Forrest, or Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, through whom she met Lindsay, who killed himself and 26 others in 2005.
