7/7 White Widow 'stole ID to work in halal pie factory'

The British woman suspected of co-ordinating the shopping mall terror attack in Nairobi allegedly worked under a stolen identity in a South African halal pie factory.

Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of 7/7 suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay, reportedly used the name Natalie Faye Webb to work as a computer specialist at the business outside Soweto. She was said to have been living 15 miles away with her three young children in a run-down, gated home in Johannesburg’s largely Muslim Mayfair neighbourhood.

The pie factory’s former owner, who did not want to be identified, today told how the person she knew as Natalie Webb “was a quiet woman who kept to herself”. The South African businesswoman said she only learnt of Webb’s true identity when US Embassy officials came to interview her last year. The last time she saw the woman was about three years ago when she abruptly resigned, radio station Eyewitness News reported. The former owner said she has been plagued by debt collectors trying to contact “Webb”.

Lewthwaite was today reported to have adopted a number of false identities during the four years she spent in South Africa. One of them is that of Natalie Faye Webb, 29.

South Africa’s Times newspaper claimed that Webb is a real South African. “She stole the identity of the other woman and claimed to have grown up in London with her parents who emigrated there,” a government official told the newspaper. “She applied for a passport and brought [supporting] documents and it was issued”.After the home in Mayfair “Webb” lived in a larger house in Johannesburg’s Randburg suburb. She also ran up debts of £3,700 on credit cards, store cards and in bank loans.

Kenyan officials have said that Lewthwaite entered Kenya from Tanzania in February and August 2011 using a South African passport in the name of Natalie Faye Webb. Consumer records show that she was active in South Africa as recently as May last year.