THE COLD-EYED FACE OF HATRED
Pakistani refugee who lived off benefits tried to convert local children with sweet treats and held a last supper in a park in London’s East End
POLICE and MI5 probed one of the London Bridge terrorists two years before his murderous rampage.
Khuram Butt, 27, was flagged up because of his extremist views and his case was examined by Scotland Yard and the security services.
A call was later made to the antiterror hotline, warning of Butt’s increasingly extremist behaviour. But officials downgraded the investigation because they did not suspect the married father of two was planning an attack.
The life of the self-styled soldier of Allah ended in a hail of bullets on Saturday night. It began 27 years ago in a corner of Pakistan known as the ‘land of martyrs’.
Khuram Butt became a child refugee and was given sanctuary in Britain.
Yesterday British police admitted the married father of two, who had a newborn baby, was known to the authorities before he embarked on his sickening rampage slitting throats and stabbing pub-goers while shrieking: ‘This one’s for Allah.’
Butt was born on April 20, 1990, in Jhelum, an area of the Punjab. In the early 1990s, the region was riven with political unrest, and when he was two, Butt’s family moved to Britain.
The family, including his elder brother Saad and sister Haleema, arrived as asylum seekers and settled in Barking, East London.
The police were questioning members of the family including Butt’s 28-year-old sister yesterday. In his early years, Butt is said to have attended Shaftesbury Primary School in East London.
A former family friend described him: ‘He was a cheeky chappie.’
When he was seven or eight, Butt was knocked down by a car after which he walked with a limp for a while. He went on to Stratford Academy in Forest Gate but apparently went off the rails following the sudden death of his father Saif in 2003.
A former neighbour said: ‘The kids were very young when their father passed away. It was probably quite traumatic seeing your dad lying there like that. The father was such a nice man.
‘The father used to take care to bring them up properly and make sure they didn’t stray.’
In his teenage years, Butt was ‘really naughty’, ‘mouthy’ and ‘argumentative’, according to a neighbour, who added: ‘He was uncontrolled.’
Aged 22, he started working at an admin office of the fast-food chain KFC, where a former colleague said: ‘He was a normal person, quite a friendly guy. He was going to clubs and pubs. He liked to go out with the girls.’
One former friend said he was a dope-smoking footballer who had a string of girlfriends. ‘He liked to go out a lot. He had a few girlfriends, he was just a normal guy,’ the friend said.
‘He was a good footballer, a member of a club and he used to smoke a bit of weed and had a wide circle of friends, black, white, Asian.’
Butt took part in an arranged marriage in Chigwell, Essex, in a ceremony attended by more than 400 people.
A year ago, he took a job as a customer services assistant on the London Underground. He spent much of his time living off benefits and drifting between jobs. He began calling himself ‘Jim Jones’ and also Abu or Abdul Zaitun – Abz for short – and signs of an increasing rebellious streak included leaving his red Peugeot 107 in a no-park zone and amassing parking tickets.
Neighbour Furqan Nabi said: ‘It was a bit strange, but he clearly didn’t care. ‘He kept changing his beard style and his hair. One day he would have longer hair, then he’d have shorter hair and then he would shave it all off.’
Alarmed parents reported Butt to police after he tried to convert children to radical Islam by giving them sweets.
Erica Gasparri, a 42-year-old Italian mother of three, said she spotted ‘Abz’ in the park surrounded by children.
‘My kids came home from the park and said, “Mummy, Abz is giving us sweets and can we become Muslims?” I questioned my kids and they said he had said: “Allah is a very important person and Islam is the only religion that will save you.”’
She said she confronted him and he replied: ‘Your people, all of you, Americans, Europeans, going in our countries and killing our innocent children.
‘In the name of Allah I’m ready even to kill my mother.’
She said he went on to defend the killers of drummer Lee Rigby and the Paris terrorists who struck at the magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015.
‘He was so angry with me I thought he was going to take my life that day when I confronted him,’ she said.
‘I’m lucky I’m still alive,’ she added. Ms Gasparri was not the only one to report Butt to police. One of his friends phoned the antiterror hotline, alarmed at hearing Butt’s ‘justification’ for terror attacks in the news.
The friend told the BBC: ‘That day I realised I needed to contact the authorities.’
Butt was a supporter of Anjem Choudary’s banned Islamist group al-Muhajiroun. He was banned from his local mosque, the Jabir bin Zayd Islamic Centre, for parroting Choudary. One worshipper said: ‘He kept shouting, “Only God is in charge”.
Last year, ‘Abz’ featured in a Channel 4 documentary about British jihadists and unfurled an Islamic State-style flag in Regent’s Park under the noses of police. A week ago, he hosted a ‘last supper’ barbecue in Barking Park.
A 30-year-old neighbour said: ‘It was all men, not even any kids, they were all Muslims. He invited me but I didn’t attend.’
When asked if it was a ‘last supper’ BBQ, he said: ‘Yeah, that’s one way of putting it.’
‘He used to smoke a bit of weed’ ‘Hosted last supper for friends’