Refused asylum, killer simply moved to Ireland, married a Briton and came back
ONE of the London Bridge terrorists was a failed asylum seeker who slipped back into the UK after changing his name and marrying a British woman in Dublin, it emerged last night.
Moroccan pastry chef Rachid Redouane, 30, was refused asylum in 2009, when he was using the name Rachid Elkhdar.
Three years later, calling himself Redouane, he married London-born Charisse O’Leary.
Soon after their wedding in Dublin, he is said to have returned to Morocco while his 33-year-old wife went back to London.
In 2014, he applied for an Irish visa through his marriage to an EU citizen, Sky News said. A year later, he was granted an EU card, allowing him to live in the UK – and commit mass murder. An Irish security source described Redouane, who was not previously known to the security services, as having ‘extensive immigration history related to the UK’. The Home Office declined to comment last night and a number of important questions remained unanswered.
It was not clear when the jihadi first arrived in the UK, whether he was deported back to Morocco after his asylum application was rejected in 2009 and how he managed to slip back into the UK under a different name.
Miss O’Leary, who has a 20month-old daughter Amina but
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split from Redouane about three months ago, could not be reached for comment last night. She was released without charge on Monday, 36 hours after being arrested in connection with the terror attacks which culminated in her husband being shot dead by police. Last night there were further disturbing revelations about Redouane and his life in the UK.
Like his fellow London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt, he was a follower of hate preacher Anjem Choudary’s banned Islamist extremist group Al Muhajiroun, Sky News reported.
Sources in Dublin revealed he was arrested for immigration offences in 2009 – the year he was refused asylum in the UK – while trying to board a boat from Scotland to Northern Ireland and was held for a number of days. It is believed he was questioned about fake passports.
It was also claimed that UK police had arrested him previously, possibly for immigrationrelated offences.
Scotland Yard said on Monday that Redouane had not been on the terror radar in the past.
Last night a bakery boss who employed Redouane said the pastry chef had been looking for a better life in the UK, only for extremist Muslims to brainwash him. Rajan Sehdev, 44, owner of Dylan’s Bakery in Willesden, North West London, said Redouane was suffering from depression after splitting from his wife.
Redouane had already lived in the UK for nearly a decade when in August 2011 he joined the bakery, where he met Miss O’Leary.
‘It wasn’t a marriage of convenience,’ Mr Sehdev said. ‘The Rachid I knew is the complete opposite to the individual involved in the events of Saturday night.
‘He wasn’t opinionated, political or ever discussed religion. He never showed any extreme views.
‘It seems he came back a couple of years ago and moved east [to Barking] where he met these friends and associates, like Khuram Butt and Anjem Choudary. He was naive and they manipulated him... brainwashed him. He had lost his own way in life and maybe thought they gave him a purpose – instead they poisoned him with their ideology. ‘