LONDON: British intelligence upgraded a terrorist’s threat level due to evidence that he was planning an attack, but failed to inform the probation officer charged with monitoring his activity, an inquest has heard.
Usman Khan killed two people in a knife attack in central London in 2019, less than a year after he was released early from jail where he was serving time for terror offenses.
Now an inquest into the murder of Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones at a prisoner rehabilitation event near London Bridge has heard that British intelligence services had evidence that Khan was planning an attack, but did not inform his probation officer.
Last modified on Wed 5 May 2021 14.23 EDT
The probation officer responsible for the terrorist Usman Khan was not told Khan was the subject of an MI5 counter-terrorist investigation before he carried out his deadly attacks at Fishmongers’ Hall, an inquest has heard.
Khan killed the Cambridge University graduates Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones at an event for a prisoner education programme hosted by Learning Together at the hall in central London in November 2019.
On Wednesday, an inquest into their deaths heard evidence from Kenneth Skelton, the probation officer who monitored Khan when he was released from prison on licence in December 2018 after serving six years for terrorist offences.
10:26 EDT, 22 April 2021
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Fishmongers Hall jihadist Usman Khan was known as High Risk Khan to workers on a prisoner rehabilitation scheme and was said to have been involved in violent incidents, bullying and serious disruption, including forced [religious] conversions inside jail, an inquest heard today.
Jurors were told that there was intelligence the terrorist, 28, might commit an attack around the time he was released from category A Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire in December 2018 - almost a year before he killed two Cambridge graduates during a knife rampage.
Counsel for the inquest Jonathan Hough QC said Khan was considered the main inmate on his wing for extremist views and the radicalisation of others before his release halfway through a 16-year sentence for plotting to set up a jihadist training camp in Pakistan for attacks against Britain.
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