The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Hospital bomber had been building device for months
The Liverpool bomber had been buying bomb components since at least April, police have revealed.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said Iraqborn Emad Al Swealmeen had rented a property in Liverpool seven months ago and had started making “relevant purchases” for his homemade bomb “at least” since that time.
“A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, we know Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time,” Mr Jackson said.
“We have now traced a next of kin who has informed us that he was born in Iraq.”
The 32-year-old asylum seeker had suffered from periods of mental illness that will “form part of the investigation and will take some time to fully understand”.
Mr Jackson added: “It is clear that he was known to many people. We continue to appeal for people who knew him, especially those who associated with him this year as we try and piece together the events leading up to this incident and the reasons for it.
“At this time we are not finding any link to others in the Merseyside area of concern but this remains a fast moving investigation and as more becomes known we cannot rule out action against others.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel claimed Al Swealmeen, who reportedly arrived in the UK from the Middle East in 2014 and had an application for asylum rejected the following year, had been able to exploit Britain’s “dysfunctional” immigration system by staying in the country.
Christian convert Al Swealmeen died in the blast in a taxi outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital shortly before 11am on Remembrance Sunday.
Concerns have been raised some asylum seekers in the city may have pretended to convert to Christianity in order to bolster their visa applications.
Liverpool Cathedral, where Al Swealmeen was baptised in 2015 and confirmed in 2017, said asylum seekers who convert would be expected to be “closely connected” with the congregation for at least two years before staff would support a visa application.
A spokesman said: “Liverpool Cathedral has developed robust processes for discerning whether someone might be expressing a genuine commitment to faith.
“These include requirements for regular attendance alongside taking part in a recognised Christian basics course. We would expect someone to be closely connected with the community for at least two years before we would consider supporting an application.”
Ms Patel is reported to have said on her flight to Washington: “The case in Liverpool was a complete reflection of how dysfunctional, how broken, the system has been in the past, and why I want to bring changes forward,” she was quoted as saying.
“It’s a complete merrygo-round and it has been exploited. A whole sort of professional legal services industry has based itself on rights of appeal, going to the courts day-in day-out at the expense of the taxpayers through legal aid. That is effectively what we need to change.”