Police saw jihadi buying ‘bomb belt’
But officials failed to stop terrorist ahead of knife frenzy
A TERROR attack could have been prevented if a jihadi had been recalled to prison after police saw him buying items that were later used for a fake suicide belt, a jury concluded yesterday.
Sudesh Amman, 20, was shot dead by undercover officers 62 seconds after he stole a kitchen knife from a discount store and began randomly stabbing members of the public.
He had been released from prison into a probation hostel only ten days earlier, having served 20 months of a 40-month sentence for disseminating terrorist material.
Police and MI5 held an emergency meeting two days before the attack in Streatham, south London, to discuss whether to rearrest Amman, an inquest heard.
The home-grown terrorist had been seen buying four bottles of Irn Bru, kitchen foil and parcel tape from Poundland on January 31 last year, and authorities rightly feared he planned to use the items to make a hoax suicide belt.
But HM Prison and Probation Service decided against recalling him to prison for the remaining 20 months of his sentence, instead opting to upgrade his surveillance to 24hour monitoring by armed officers.
Jurors at the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday agreed with Amman’s family that this was a ‘missed opportunity’ to prevent the attack.
The authorities had also decided against searching his probation hostel room, fearing it would tip him off that his movements were
‘Randomly stabbed two passers-by’
being watched. The inquest heard of a third potential opportunity to swoop on the terrorist before the attack when he doubled back on himself as he walked along the street as if to evade a tail.
But jurors concluded that these two decisions did not amount to missed opportunities. They returned a conclusion of lawful killing.
On February 2 last year Amman grabbed a carving knife from a shop in Streatham, ran outside and stabbed Monika Luftner, 52, a nursery school teacher, in the back. Doctors later had to put her in a medically induced coma.
He then knifed a male passer-by in the torso before being confronted by two armed surveillance officers. They fired six bullets and Amman was later pronounced dead. Both victims recovered. A Probation Service source said the right decision had been made under the circumstances. ‘If he had been recalled to prison he would have served the rest of his sentence then been released without an ankle tag and we wouldn’t have been able to put him into a hostel where we could monitor him and search his room if necessary,’ the source said.