Clapham attack suspect ‘exposed himself to woman near bus stop’
Sexual offences emerge as last sighting is revealed
CHEMICAL attack suspect Abdul Ezedi exposed himself to a woman near a bus stop and groped another while he waited to be granted asylum.
Afghan-born Ezedi carried out the offences in Newcastle in 2017, just a few months after he entered Britain illegally hidden in a lorry.
He pleaded guilty and in 2018 was handed a suspended jail sentence.
He went on to successfully claim asylum at his third attempt after a priest told a judge Ezedi had converted to Christianity and was “wholly committed” to it.
Yesterday, police revealed new
CCTV sightings of the suspect in Central London had been picked up following “painstaking work” by counter terrorism officers.
They place Ezedi, inset, walking along Upper Thames Street, which runs north of the river west of London Bridge, at 9.54pm on the night of the alkali attack in Clapham, South London, last Wednesday.
The last sighting is of him continuing west past the Unilever HQ by Blackfriars Bridge at 10.04pm.
The alkali attack left a 31-year-old woman with severe burns that are likely to blind her right eye. Her two daughters, aged three and eight, were also hospitalised. Ezedi is said to have been visiting the woman. Commander Jon Savell of the Metropolitan Police yesterday said it “remains our belief that he is being helped by others” and the police probe will continue to “target more of
Ezedi’s associates”. More than 100 officers are now dedicated to the inquiry. A £20,000 police bounty for information is also in place.
Yesterday a man who worked with Ezedi in a pizza shop on Tyneside recalled his shock when the “devout Muslim” was snared as a sex pest. He said: “We were so shocked. One was a sexual assault and after that he exposed himself to a woman who was on her way to catch a bus.”
The friend claimed Ezedi sent all his earnings home but that sparked an armed raid on his family home, during which his sister was shot dead.