A BETRAYAL BEYOND BELIEF
Officials knew Parsons Green bomber was an Iraqi trained by jihadis and hated Britain but didn’t tell his foster parents – or do anything to stop him
FOSTER parents of an Iraqi refugee last night demanded to know why he was left free to carry out a Tube bombing. Ahmed Hassan, 18, entered Britain on the back of a lorry and admitted to Home Office officials that he was trained to kill by Islamic State.
But blunders meant he was placed with the loving couple, who had no idea about his links to the terror group as he secretly built a deadly bomb in their home with a
YouTube recipe. His victims and MPs yesterday questioned why he was let into the UK and why counter-terrorism officials failed to monitor him adequately.
The asylum seeker faces life in jail after being convicted yesterday of trying to kill 93 commuters with a homemade bomb on September 15. He will be sentenced next week.
Hassan plotted under the nose of the Government’s anti-extremism programme Prevent, which appears to have failed to act for months despite repeated referrals. Months before the attack, there were signs he was bent on revenge on the UK, yet he slipped the net. Yesterday it emerged:
÷His foster parents accused the Home Office and social services of putting their lives at risk;
÷Prevent faced questions on why Hassan was referred by charity workers a day after his immigration interview but, it is thought, no contact was made for eight months;
÷Hassan was never referred to MI5 despite being seen donating to IS and declaring it was his ‘duty to hate Britain’;
÷He claimed he did not know the attack was wrong as he had Asperger’s syndrome, but the Old Bailey judge blocked the defence as he was never formally diagnosed.
Prosecutors said it was ‘luck’ his device did not fully explode. His target was Earl’s Court station, where he hoped to kill hundreds, but the train was delayed and the bomb went off at Parsons Green, injuring 30. Dozens more were wounded as they fled.
Yesterday it emerged that 20 months earlier, Prevent were tipped off about Hassan by charity Barnardo’s a day after his first Home Office interview, when he revealed he had been trained to kill by IS. His college teacher made a second referral in August 2016 after he was seen making a donation to IS. Prevent was called a month later when Hassan disappeared to Wales for a week.
But it was unclear last night what, if any, help he received from the programme.
In a pre-trial hearing, prosecutor Alison Morgan said foster carers Penny and Ron Jones were never told he had been trained to kill by IS. The couple welcomed Hassan into their home in Sunbury- on-Thames, Surrey, where he stole knives and screwdrivers to build his bomb while they slept.
Mrs Jones said: ‘It makes me really angry that anyone’s life was put at risk. I feel very betrayed … the Home Office have let everybody down and social services could have found out more information.’
Chris Wildish, who was caught up in the blast, said: ‘This country did everything they could to help him … yet he still did this terrible thing.’ The case is to be looked at by the home affairs committee. Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope, a committee member, said: ‘I think it is a legitimate question to ask why did we let him in … our liberal rules are being exploited by our own enemies.’
Met Commander Dean Haydon said Hassan was ‘devious and cunning’, adding: ‘He was appearing to engage with [Prevent], but he kept secret what he was planning.’
Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner David Munro told BBC Radio 4: ‘We were too slow, all the organisations involved.’
A Surrey council spokesman said it told Mr and Mrs Jones about Hassan’s background ‘at the time he was placed’.
Security minister Ben Wallace said police and the council had conducted an internal review. Prevent refused to confirm if and when it spoke to Hassan.