Criminal who was driven by hate
POLICE in the UK have pieced together a frightening criminal profile of how 52- year- old former teacher and father- of- three Khalid Masood became a monster who massacred at least four people in this week’s terrorist attack in London.
Masood was born in southern England on Christmas Day in 1964 as Adrian Ajao.
He first came to the attention of police as a 19year- old in 1983 when he was found guilty of criminal damage and within a few short years racked up numerous charges including assault, for which he served time in jail.
In 2004, he married British Muslim woman Farzana Malik from Kent and moved to Saudi Arabia, where he mixed with extremist Islamic preachers.
He returned to the UK in 2009 and continued to mix in extremist circles in Birmingham. He became a gym junkie and bodybuilder and preached the benefits of having children in Muslim schools. He also spent a lot of time in London, where he attended the Al- Tawhid mosque.
He was on the police radar as a potential extremist threat, but was not watched round the clock.
Then this week he rented a car in Birmingham, and drove to Brighton, where he spent the night before the attack in room 228 at Preston Park Hotel.
Staff said he was friendly and asked for the cheapest room available. They had no idea what he was about to do when he paid his bill the next morning and drove to London. A WOMAN thought to be the partner of Westminster terrorist Khalid Masood is among 10 people arrested as police close in on suspected associates of the British- born Islamic extremist who killed four people and wounded 50 others in his abhorrent attack.
A 75- year- old man who died when his life support was turned off in hospital has become the fourth victim of Masood’s deadly rampage on Wednesday, where he used a hire car to run down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in central London before stabbing a policeman to death in the forecourt of the Houses of Parliament.
A 39- year- old woman named as Rohey Hydara was arrested at a flat in Stratford, East London, as police conducted searches across London, the large regional city of Birmingham and across the border in Wales.
Hydara is understood to be the partner of 52- year- old Masood, who was gunned down by police officers after his bloody rampage.
Ten people, understood to be aged between 21 and 58, have now been arrested by police, with at least six of them held on suspicion of being involved in the preparation of terrorist acts.
Three women are thought to be among the suspects.
The nation’s top anti- terror officer, Acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Rowley, said police had conducted 16 searches as their investigation into Masood continued.
Detectives had seized 2700 pieces of evidence, including a vast amount of computer data.
Mr Rowley said that Khalid Masood’s birth name was Adrian Russell Ajao.
With several of the victims of Masood’s still in a critical condition and fears the death toll could rise, relatives of the dead shared their anguish yesterday at losing loved ones to such a senseless and cowardly act of violence.
The husband of Aysha Frade, the 43- year- old mother of two who was mowed down by Masood on her way to pick her children up for school, was said to be completely broken.
“I can’t even put it into words how he’s feeling,” John Frade’s cousin, also John, said yesterday. “His life has completely fallen apart because of what’s happened. They’ve got young kids.”
Another victim was named as US tourist Kurt Cochran,
HIS LIFE HAS COMPLETELY FALLEN APART BECAUSE OF WHAT’S HAPPENED. THEY’VE GOT YOUNG KIDS.