Uni lecturers to get anti-terror lessons
Police bid to boost college links COPS REVEAL TRAINING AFTER STUDENT BOMBER JAILED
Lecturers are being given anti-terror training by police following the jailing of Parsons Green Tube bomber Ahmed Hassan.
The National Counter Terrorism Security Office want to strengthen links with education workers to reassure them their concerns about suspicious students will be taken seriously.
Intelligence failings meant that teenage Iraqi asylum seeker Hassan was able to plant a home-made device on a rush-hour underground train – despite a college lecturer reporting concerns that he’d said he had “a duty to hate Britain”.
Hassan, 18, was jailed for a minimum of 34 years last month after being found guilty of attempting to murder dozens of commuters in the September attack.
Now the authorities are aiming to boost links with further education professionals.
Police Scotland have invited lecturers at universities and colleges across the country to events this month and in May and June as part of Project Griffin, the codename for anti-terror training.
A source said: “Staff will be shown how to look out for suspicious people or situations. It’s all about vigilance and knowing the warning signs. Everyone can play a part in helping keep the public safe.
“The London Tube bomber case shows that university and college lecturers have a role to play tackling terrorism.”
The Sunday Mail revealed in December how nightclub bouncers had received anti- terror training by police under Project Griffin. The scheme was first launched in 2004 and sees specialist counter-terrorism officers help 100,000 workers a year identify security concerns.
September’s partially-exploded device injured 51 commuters when a fireball swept through the train carriage, burning passengers’ skin, hair and clothing. The Old Bailey heard Hassan used a £ 20 Amazon voucher he won for being Student of the Year to buy chemicals to make his bomb.
A lecturer at Brooklands College, Surrey, flagged up her concerns about his support for IS after he told her he had “a duty to hate Britain”. Hassan also texted her to complain: “Your country continues to bomb my people daily.”
The court heard that a lecturer had seen a message on Hassan’s phone in 2016 saying: “IS has accepted your donation.”
The Iraqi was referred to the counterextremism programme Prevent but it emerged that he had never seen deradicalisation experts.
Surrey Council apologised for failures, saying: “Our work with other agencies wasn’t as good as it should have been.”
A Government review has been launched.
Police Scotland Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean said: “This is part of an ongoing initiative to deliver Project Griffin training, which we have done for several years.
“There is no specif ic threat to any fur ther or higher education establishment in Scotland.”
A National Counter Terrorism Policing spokesman said: “Parsons Green is an unfortunate case because that is an example where an education professional has referred and the prevent mechanisms haven’t necessarily worked properly.
“This training is open to all universities and colleges.”