Chilling details of how terrorist planned ISIS-inspired attack emerge in Supreme Court
A young terrorist who staged a near-fatal ISIS-inspired attack on a Melbourne family researched night vision googles and staged a practice run on an empty mattress, with even her defence lawyer conceding she remains totally remorseless.
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A young terrorist who staged an ISIS-inspired attack on a Melbourne family remains totally remorseless over the near-fatal attack.
Momena Shoma, 25, had been in Melbourne just several days when she crept up on Roger Singaravelu as he slept and stabbed him in the neck.
She had hoped to kill him with a 25cm kitchen knife she had brought with her from her native Bangladesh in February last year.
STUDENT CAME HERE TO BE ISIS TERRORIST
TERROR CHARGE OVER ‘ISIS-INSPIRED’ STABBING
SHOMA FORCED TO REMOVE NIQAB IN COURT
“He seemed an easy target because he was sleeping,” she later said.
Shoma had come to Melbourne under the guise of studying at Latrobe University where she had been awarded a scholarship.
But the Supreme Court heard today the real purpose of her trip was to kill on behalf of Islamic State.
She believed if she didn’t act, she would be punished by Allah.
“She was driven by what she believed to be a religious obligation at that time,” defence counsel Peter Morrissey, SC, said.
Mr Morrissey said there was no evidence Shoma had shown a shred of remorse, or had renounced any of her radical beliefs.
He said there was no option for Justice Lesley Taylor but to impose a lengthy prison term.
The court heard Shoma, who pleaded guilty to a single count of engaging in a terrorist act, carefully planned her attack.
A forensic analysis of her phone found she had searched: “are people in deep sleep when they snore?” and “how can you tell if people are in a deep sleep?”.
She researched night vision goggles, sleeping patterns, and conducted a practice run on an empty mattress at the home of her homestay family.
After stab wounds were found in that mattress, the family refused to continue housing Shoma and she was sent to Mr Singaravelu’s family.
“We welcomed (her) into our home when she had no where else to go,” he said in a statement to the court today.
“She took advantage of our hospitality and our faith in human kind and used us to promote a message of hate.”
Mr Morrissey argued while the crime was serious, it wasn’t the most serious example of the offence because it wasn’t conducted in a public space.
But Justice Taylor said she wasn’t convinced.
“The very nature of the crime is to harm all Australian citizens, to harm our understanding of our way of life, the freedoms we assume we enjoy, and to make society more scared, to be terrorised,” she said.
“A person coming to Australia ostensibly to be a student and within days attacking a host family, is liable to make people feel very scared indeed.”
Shoma, who refused to stand for Justice Tayor but complied with a request to remove her niqab so she could be identified, will be sentenced at a later date.
She is facing a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Mr Singaravelu is suing the Australian Homestay Network which organised the student’s placement.