Terrorists may never be cured says rehab chief
THE psychologist behind the Government’s terrorist deradicalisation programme has admitted that experts “can never be sure” that an attacker is no longer a risk.
Christopher Dean said some offenders regress and there is no guarantee they can be “cured”.
He warned it was incredibly difficult to change the mindset of those who have been indoctrinated for years by terror groups.
Mr Dean said: “I think we have to be very careful about ever saying that somebody no longer presents a risk of committing an offence.
“I don’t think you can ever be sure. We have to be very careful about saying someone has totally changed or has been cured.”
London Bridge attacker Usman Khan went through the Healthy Identity Intervention programme and went on to kill Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, in November.
Khan had been jailed for planning to set up a terrorism training camp but appeared to be responding to rehabilitation when he was released on licence in December 2018.
Mr Dean said some of the most complex offenders he had worked with needed 20 or more sessions to show signs of change.
He said: “They may come into contact with individuals, they may go through a spell in life where they may feel let’s say aggrieved again, where they may begin to re-engage with groups or causes or ideologies associated with their offending behaviour.”
Ian Acheson, a former Home Office official who led a review of extremism in prisons, said the shortcomings of the programme were highlighted in 2016. He said there was evidence that showed the scheme was “easy to manipulate”.
“There was a degree of false compliance with the Healthy Identity Intervention course which meant that it would appear that people had improved or made progress when they might simply have been disguising their intentions,” he said. “We must accept that there may be a small number of people who are potentially ideologically bulletproof and do not wish to recant their hateful views.”
The Government insisted a new counter-terror Bill will keep terrorists in prison for longer and strengthen licence conditions if they are released. A spokesman said: “We have given prison governors the tools to tackle terrorists in prisons.
“We also use a range of deradicalisation programmes for terrorists before and after they are released and monitor extremists who are released into the community.”