Jihadi killer and his victim sitting at the same table
A CONVICTED terrorist calmly chatted to a Cambridge graduate at a prisoner rehabilitation conference before stabbing her in the neck, an inquest heard yesterday.
Jihadi Usman Khan was photographed sitting one seat away from Saskia Jones, 23, in the banqueting hall at Fishmongers’ Hall in central London in November 2019.
Video footage showed Khan enjoying brunch and mingling with delegates in conference rooms which are lined with royal crests and a portrait of the Queen. Staff and guests were unaware that the terrorist was wearing a fake suicide vest under his jacket and had three knives in his bag.
During the lunch break, Khan went to the men’s toilets and taped an eight-inch kitchen knife to each hand. When he opened the door he saw 25-year-old Jack Merritt – another Cambridge University graduate who was helping to run the Learning Together rehabilitation programme – and stabbed him 12 times.
Police later found Khan’s prayer book and a third knife inside a bag in the toilet. He had inscribed the knives with the symbol of Allah.
Khan then moved towards the cloakroom where Miss Jones was standing and plunged a knife into her neck.
Both victims died of their wounds minutes later.
At the time of the attack, Khan was on licence and was wearing an electronic tag. He had been released the previous year after serving eight years for terror offences, including plotting to attack the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
Khan later stabbed criminology graduate Stephanie Szczotko in the arm before maiming fellow staff member Isobel Rowbotham.
Giving evidence on the first day of the inquest into the attack, Detective Chief
Inspector Dan Brown said Khan was then confronted by delegates. They gathered weapons from the walls of Fishmongers’ Hall including an ornamental pike, narwhal tusks and a fire extinguisher.
Kitchen porter Lukasz Koczocik was stabbed in the arm during the attempt to subdue Khan, who then forced security guard Chris Jeffs to let him out of the locked front door by threatening him with a knife.
Astonishing CCTV footage played to the inquest showed Khan, with his knives raised, charging at Steven Gallant, a convicted murderer who was on day release at the time.
Mr Gallant retreated behind the front door before reemerging with a large narwhal tusk to attack Khan with.
The terrorist was also chased by convicted murderer John Crilly, who was armed with a fire extinguisher, and civil servant Darryn Frost, who used a second narwhal tusk.
As Khan ran towards members of the public on London Bridge, the trio pinned him down. Armed police arrived about six minutes after the attack began. Believing Khan’s suicide vest to be real, officers shot him twice.
Police later discovered he had made the fake bomb vest using a black belt, a battery charger and Xbox parts.
The inquest, which is being held in London’s Guildhall building, is expected to last for up to six weeks.
‘Taped knives to his hands’