I warned of risk from London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan — and was ignored

From the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday

The former police sergeant, who is not being named for security reasons, is also a Muslim and was mentoring Usman Khan through the government’s desistance and disengagement programme (DDP).

The mentor, who cannot be named for security reasons, says Khan, 27, seemed sincere about abandoning his extremist views and helping to deradicalise other prisoners when they first met last November, at Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire.

…the mentor recalled how he met Khan twice a week for two-hour sessions between December 2018 and March this year – and that during one meeting, he noticed a sudden and aggressive mood swing.    

He said: ‘During the meeting, he went from being measured and calm to suddenly being enraged about something he claimed the probation services weren’t allowing him to do.’

Khan had supposedly become frustrated over the licence conditions that had been imposed on him, which included an electronic monitoring tag, curfew and supervised internet access.

The mentor added that Khan then very swiftly ‘self-corrected’ his behaviour and calmed down, leading the former Scotland Yard officer to believe he had a ‘suspiciously rehearsed’ persona. 

Despite raising his concerns over Khan’s behaviour and that he still held extremist views, the mentor said no action by the Home Office or probation service was taken.

‘He should not have been released from prison,’ the officer added. ‘What the hell happened between March and November, and how the hell has nobody seen the warning signs?’

He said that he had revealed the incident in his session assessment report, which was sent to the Home Office and the probation service, but he heard nothing back.

The Home Office, however, contacted him immediately after the London Bridge terrorist attack on November 29, when Khan killed two people and injured three others — but only to advise him against speaking to the media.

“The Home Office called me and said, ‘It’s likely the media will be in contact with you but we recommend that you don’t comment’,” the officer said.

He said has decided to go public with his story for the first time because he was devastated by the deaths of Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt: “[Khan] targeted the most innocent people. And they did not see him as a former terrorist but as someone they believed was able to reform.”

He said he was ready to debrief the police and security services: “I am prepared to speak to people in authority to ensure that lessons are learnt and that no more innocent lives are lost as a result of terrorist acts. The ideology needs to be challenged without fear of being too politically correct.”

The former Scotland Yard officer was used to mentoring convicted terrorists when he met Usman Khan at Whitemoor prison, Cambridgeshire, in November last year.

The mentor added: “He should not have been released from prison. You can’t deal with former terrorist offenders the same way you treat other criminals. Other prisoners have been convicted based on behaviours such as theft, robberies and so on. But terrorism acts are based on an ideology, which to their interpretation rewards them for evil acts against non-believers. . . “

The mentor said the DDP scheme was a failure because it prioritised former terrorist inmates “complying with licence conditions” instead of focusing on their ideological views and extremist beliefs. After 20 years at the Met, the former officer knew how to spot criminals. He also worked with mental health patients and after leaving the police in 2012 he was a social worker.

“I had so much knowledge, skills and experience and I identified [the red flag] and nothing was done,” he said. “And the reason it wasn’t done is that the system — TUI, the police and probation — were all working independently and we were not targeting what we were supposed to be doing, which is to challenge ideology. To sit someone down for two hours at a time to sort out their CV and not challenge their ideology; to sort out their universal credit and not challenge their ideology — what we don’t want is the same thing to happen again.”