Terror inquest gun police will stay nameless
John Twomey
TWENTY armed police officers who responded to the London Bridge terror attack last year are to give evidence anonymously at the inquest into the killer’s death.
The marksmen have applied for secrecy orders on the grounds that they and their families would be in danger of reprisals if their identities became known.
Usman Khan, 28, was killed by City of London officers shortly after he stabbed two people to death and wounding three others at Fishmongers’ Hall on London Bridge last November.
Freed early from a sentence for terrorism offences, Khan hoodwinked the authorities into thinking he was a reformed character.
A ban on entering the capital was relaxed for a day so he could attend a Cambridge University-sponsored Learning Together rehabilitation event at the hall. During the meeting, Khan pulled out two kitchen knives and stabbed to death Cambridge graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23.
Chased outside by have-a-go heroes including a convicted killer, Khan was shot dead in the street by armed police officers.
The terrorist, who had been wearing an electronic tag, had been given an indeterminate sentence in 2012 after he admitted being part of an Al Qaeda-inspired plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange.
Khan, of Stoke-on-Trent, appealed and the sentence was changed to a 16-year fixed-term, meaning he was eligible for automatic release after serving half the time behind bars. After taking account of all the time he had spent in custody, the killer walked free in December 2018. Armed police who shot dead terrorists at Westminster Bridge in March 2017 and at London Bridge three months later were granted anonymity at the inquests into the atrocities in which a total of 17 people lost their lives. The marksmen were given pseudonyms and gave evidence from behind screens during the coroner’s court hearings at the Old Bailey.