IS fanatic plotted to kill PM
A HERO police officer who was repeatedly stabbed as he fought terrorists behind the London Bridge attack was yesterday awarded one of the UK’s highest bravery honours.
PC Wayne Marques received a George Medal for taking on the jihadis armed only with his baton as a night of carnage unfolded in the capital.
The British Transport Police officer had just started a night shift on June 3 last year when he heard screams and grabbed his baton and charged towards the first attacker before he was set upon by all three terrorists.
Birmingham-born PC Marques, 39, who temporarily lost his sight and suffered sickening injuries to his head, leg and hand, was singled out for showing “exceptional courage” against “overwhelming odds”.
He said: “Those words don’t just relate to me, they relate to everybody that was involved that night, that did what they could to help people. Whether they were giving CPR, whether they were throwing bottles [at the attackers], whether they were pulling people out of danger.
“Anybody and everybody that did something displayed a level of courage that night.”
Machete-wielding terrorists Youssef Zaghba, 22, Khuram Butt, 27, and Rachid Redouane, 30, indiscriminately mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge in a hired van before crashing it near Borough Market and launching their knife attack. They killed eight people before being shot dead.
PC Marques, just two years into his BTP career, was recognised alongside Metropolitan Police officer Charles Guenigault, who also received the George Medal, and his BTP colleague and partner on the night, Leon McLeod, who was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry medal. There were also posthumous awards for some of the victims. Spanish banker Ignacio Echeverria, 39, was killed trying to defend a woman with his skateboard and was given the George Medal.
Australian nurse Kirsty Boden, 28, was posthumously awarded the Queen’s commendation for bravery. She had been on a night out when she went to help those injured in the attack and was killed.
Also among those honoured was British paramedic Hassan Zubier, 46, wounded trying to save a woman’s life during a knife attack in Finland that left two women dead. He was awarded the George Medal. He was on holiday when he happened upon the attack in Turku in August last year.
He was injured after the knifeman, who he had managed to chase away, returned to the scene. AN ISLAMIC State terrorist was found guilty yesterday of a plot to behead the Prime Minister in a suicide attack on the heart of Government.
Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, planned to bomb the gates of 10 Downing Street, kill guards and attack Theresa May with a knife or gun.
He pledged allegiance to IS and collected what he thought was an explosives-packed rucksack when he was arrested last November.
He thought he was being helped by an IS handler when in fact he was talking to undercover officers.
Following an Old Bailey trial, Rahman, from Finchley, north London, was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism in Britain.
Midway through the trial, he admitted helping his friend Mohammed Aqib Imran to join IS in Libya by recording an IS sponsorship video.
Imran, 22, from Birmingham, was found guilty of having a terrorist handbook after the jury deliberated for 13 hours.
The jury is still deliberating on a charge against Imran of preparing terrorist acts.