Bomber is Iraqi refugee
Foster family link to second suspect
THE teenage suspect held in connection with the Parsons Green tube bombing is an orphan from Iraq, it was claimed last night.
It’s understood the 18-year-old spent months living in the former refugee camp known as “The Jungle”
in Calais, France, before a charity arranged his passage into Britain in 2014, when he was 15.
The Iraqi teenager is believed to have been in foster care with at least two families in Kent before he moved in with Ronald Jones, 88, and his wife Penelope, 71, in south-west London just weeks ago.
CCTV footage released last night showed a man with a Lidl bag like the one containing the homemade bucket bomb near the Joneses’ home at 6.50am on Friday – 90 minutes before a fireball ripped through the packed carriage.
The area is a 37-minute train ride from Wimbledon station, where the tube started its journey.
The teenager was arrested at the departure area at Dover port on Saturday morning as he tried to leave the country after the attack that injured 33 people 24 hours earlier.
Spelthorne Borough councillor Ian Harvey, whose ward is near where he had been living, said: “I understand he was an Iraqi refugee who came here aged 15 – his parents died in Iraq.”
Neighbours of the Joneses, who received MBEs from the Queen after fostering up to 300 children, yesterday said the “wonderfully caring couple” were “at their wits’ end” with the teenager. They revealed the suspect had a furious bust-up with his foster parents two weeks ago after he was brought back to the house in Sunbury-upon-Thames in a marked police car. It is understood he was picked up at Parsons Green station. Neighbour Steven Griffiths said police told residents the couple’s home would be combed by forensics officers for “at least a week” after “significant materials” were discovered in the loft. Last night, a 21-yearold man, thought to be a Syrian refugee, was also being questioned in connection with the attack. Armed police raided his home opposite the cargo area at Heathrow Airport in west London. It is believed the second suspect was also taken in by the Joneses after arriving in the UK in 2015. Following the second arrest, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced that the UK’s threat level had been lowered from critical to severe.