Spooks in rush to halt spate of copycat terror attacks UK NETWORK OF FANATICS
MY BRAVE ANGEL CABBIE’S A HERO
THE boyfriend of Aussie nurse Kirsty Boden has spoken of his pride over her courage.
Kirsty, 28, died running into the London Bridge mayhem to help victims.
Brit James Hodder said: “She was in a restaurant and people were running away, but she ran towards it all. Nobody was surprised. That’s the kind of person she was – brave and selfless.
“I’m very proud of her actions that night.”
Finance worker James has set up a fund in her memory at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kirsty-boden. THE London Bridge terror ringleader was inspired by a vast network of fanatics operating across Britain, a Sunday People investigation has found.
Security services are working to stop copycat attacks like 27-year-old Khuram Butt’s last Saturday night – but our probe uncovers the extent of their daunting task.
Butt was a trusted follower of jailed hate preacher Anjem Choudary, leader of the banned Islamist group al-Muhajiroun.
A source said: “Al-Muhajiroun has a huge network dotted all over the UK.”
Choudary was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2016 for boosting support for IS. But hundreds are still being inducted into his group after being brainwashed, in person and online.
The group’s has penetrated towns and cities across Britain, including London, Birmingham, Manchester and Luton.
Research by think-tank the Henry Jackson Society suggests 25 per cent of those convicted of Islamist-inspired terror in the UK from 1999 to 2015 were directly linked to al-Muhajiroun – higher than those connected to al-Qaeda (10 per cent) and Islamic State (5 per cent).
A source said: “The biggest problem for the security services is that these fanatics can become part of the group without ever having to meet up in person.”
This week we traced Habib Ahmed, a key former member of the network.
Nine years ago, a trial heard he was caught in Manchester with a terrorist’s “contact book” containing phone numbers in invisible ink and was jailed for 10 years.
Now free, he has turned his back on terror. He said: “I’m through that phase. I’m just trying to get on with my life now.”
Police say there has been a spike in calls to the anti- terrorist hotline since the Manchester and London Bridge attacks. The previous average was 420 a week.
Chelsea and Glasgow Rangers veterans will play at Sutton United’s training ground in South London next Saturday to help raise cash for terror victims’ families. A BLACK cab driver has told how he rescued a cyclist fleeing London Bridge terrorists on foot after his bike had hit their white van.
Robert Mcraye, 48, said: “I came to a halt as he ran towards me. I assumed he’d been in a road accident.
“But as he climbed in he was screaming, ‘ Take me away. There’s crazy men trying to stab people’.”
Robert, of Bexley, Kent, drove off and then spotted a distraught woman in her 20s.
“I stopped again and tried my best to calm her down. I feel so sad for the people who lost their lives.”