First picture of the London terror killer
TERROR AT WESTMINSTER
THIS is the face of the Islamist thug who killed four innocent people and injured 50 others in the Westminster terror attack.
Police yesterday released a mugshot of 52-year-old Khalid Masood taken when he was arrested for a previous crime.
The image surfaced along with chilling details of Masood’s movements in the run-up to his rampage. It emerged that just one minute before he ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, he used the messaging service Whatsapp to contact a friend.
The identity of his contact and the content of the message are unknown but it was dispatched at 2.37pm before the attack at 2.38pm.
Accomplices
Masood’s message fuelled speculation that he was in contact with accomplices and communicating with them right up to the carnage.
A woman thought to be Masood’s partner, Rohey Hydara, 39, was yesterday released on bail.
She is believed to have been one of those arrested in a police raid on a flat in Stratford, east London, on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, more dramatic pictures have emerged suggesting that Masood was within 100ft of Theresa May when he made a dash for the gates at Westminster and may have reached her if he had been with an accomplice. The images show the moment Masood was gunned down by a police protection officer for Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon as victim PC Keith Palmer lay dying.
The Prime Minister was ushered to safety by her bodyguards.
It also emerged yesterday that Masood had been “laughing, joking and polite” at a hotel the night before the attack. He was also there last Friday.
Sabeur Toumi, manager of Preston Park Hotel in Brighton, said he spoke to Masood for up to 10 minutes on Tuesday night. Mr Toumi said: “He was very friendly, laughing and joking, telling us stories about where he lived. He paid for his room and he went up very peacefully. He was just like any other guest who checks in to the hotel.”
Mr Toumi added: “It is very shocking, you don’t know who is the bad ones and the good ones. So he stayed with us twice, he was a normal guest, friendly. We never thought anything of him.” Police have searched the room where he spent both nights. They took away items for forensic analysis, including a toilet roll holder and trouser press.
Fellow hotel guest Michael Peterson noticed Masood for about “10 to 15 seconds” and described him as having a polite demeanour and said
there was nothing in his conduct that would make him have any suspicious thoughts towards him.
Mr Peterson said: “The shocking realisation that you can stand next to somebody that is totally, perfectly normal...and the guy’s on his way to commit mass murder.”
Last night grieving friends paid tribute to the “lovely man” who became the fourth innocent victim of the terrorist attack.
Window cleaner Les Rhodes, 75, was described as “the nicest man you ever met” after he succumbed to his injuries.
Neighbours kept a vigil at the rock music fan’s bedside because he was unmarried and had no close family.
They told yesterday how they played his favourite Queen songs – including These Are The Days Of Our Lives – as doctors turned off his life support machine.
Mr Rhodes smashed his head on the pavement after Masood’s Hyundai 4x4 struck him in the stomach.
He was kept alive for more than 24 hours by doctors at King’s College Hospital, south London.
Neighbour Michael Carney, who had known Mr Rhodes for 40 years, said his own family stepped in because the victim had no relatives.
Crying
Mr Carney said: “My wife and my two girls went up there and were with him until he died, playing him music. You can’t have someone dying on their own. It was awful. I can’t believe this has happened.”
Mr Carney, who lives in the same estate in Clapham, south London, added: “We look out for each other and he was always there for his neighbours.”
Mr Carney’s wife Chris said: “The police advised us not to go down to the hospital. But when I rang, the doctors wanted us to come down – they were waiting for us, so someone was there with him.
“We went with our two daughters Emma and Rachel. We were trying to talk to him but we kept crying all the time while we were by his bed.
“When the doctors told us he had died my daughter, Emma, tried to tickle his feet to make sure he’d gone, because that’s what I used to say to them when they were little.”
Another neighbour, Philip Williams, 61, said: “He was the kindest man I ever knew.
“He was a very fit man, he cycled everywhere and would walk for miles.”