Officials ‘missed chances to deradicalise Tube bomber’

THE Parsons Green tube bomber never saw deradicalisation experts despite referrals to the Prevent counter-extremism programme, it has emerged.

Ahmed Hassan, 18, was referred to Prevent 20 months before he planted a bomb on a London Underground train during rush hour in September last year, injuring 30 people.

He is due to be sentenced today and faces life in prison.

The Iraqi asylum seeker told immigration officers in January 2016 that he had been trained to kill by Islamic State. Staff at the hostel where he was staying contacted Prevent the following day.

Then, eight months later, Prevent received another referral, from a tutor at Hassan’s college in Weybridge, Surrey, after Hassan told her it was his ‘duty’ to hate Britain and was seen donating to Islamic State.

Despite this, no deradicalisation intervention, where mentors talk through views of Islam, was ordered for the teenager.

A review into the case is now under way. Yvette Cooper, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said ‘serious questions’ had to be answered.