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'Jihad Jane' Colleen LaRose denies terror plot

By Lucy Halfhead on Friday 19 March 2010

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'Jihad Jane' Colleen Rooney denies terror plot - News - Marie Claire

A Pennsylvania woman dubbed 'Jihad Jane' has today pleaded not guilty to four charges in connection to an overseas terrorist plot.

LaRose, from Philadelphia, is accused of conspiring with Islamists and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war. She was arrested in October 2009 in Philadelphia while returning to the U.S.

The 46-year-old was indicted as part of an investigation into an alleged plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who drew pictures of the Prophet Muhammad which offended Muslims.

She is accused of meeting violent co-conspirators from around the world online and posting a YouTube video in 2008 saying she was ‘desperate to do something' to ease the suffering of Muslims.

LaRose spent most of her troubled life in Texas, where she dropped out of high school, married at 16 and again at 24.

After a second divorce, she followed a boyfriend, Kurt Gorman, to Pennsylvania in about 2004 and began caring for his father while he worked long hours, sometimes on the road.

In 2005, she swallowed a handful of pills in a failed suicide attempt, telling police she was upset over the death of her father - but did not want to die.