Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman was lawfully killed, jury finds

30

View
comments

The Streatham terror attack may have been prevented had perpetrator Sudesh Amman been recalled to prison after buying items used in his fake suicide belt, jurors at an inquest concluded today. 

Amman was shot dead by armed undercover officers after he stole a knife from a hardware shop and began randomly stabbing members of the public on Streatham High Road in South London.

The jury at the Royal Courts of Justice inquest into his death also concluded that the 20-year-old had been lawfully killed when he was shot dead by undercover surveillance officers on February 2 last year. 

Amman, from Queensbury, North London, had been released from HMP Belmarsh ten days earlier after serving half of a 40-month sentence for obtaining and distributing material for terrorist purposes.  

Police and MI5 officers were so concerned about Amman two days before the atrocity that they held an emergency meeting to discuss the prospect of arresting the recently released terrorist.

But HM Prison and Probation Service decided not to recall him to jail, despite undercover officers spotting him buy four small bottles of Irn-Bru, kitchen foil and parcel tape from Poundland on January 31 – items they rightly feared could be used to make a hoax suicide belt. He was kept under round-the-clock armed surveillance instead. 

The senior investigating officer on the Amman case denied suggestions from the terrorist’s family that police should have intervened and that the undercover operation was a ‘massive failure’, saying instead the Met’s actions on the day he struck prevented further tragedy.

Amman had been living at a probation hostel in Streatham for ten days when he stabbed a man and a woman before turning to charge at two armed police officers who gave chase.

The male victim and the police officers who eventually opened fire on Amman both described fearing they would die during the 62-second rampage.

The inquest jury at the Royal Courts of Justice returned a conclusion of lawful killing, after retiring for 11 hours to consider their finding, but said the probation service ‘missed an opportunity’ which may have prevented the attack and the death of Amman, in not deciding to recall him to prison after he bought items that might be used in creating a fake suicide belt.

They were told that Amman could have been recalled if probation officers were satisfied that his behaviour ‘indicated an increased or unmanageable risk of serious harm to the public’ or that there was an imminent risk of further offences being committed.

They were also asked whether the police investigation team ought to have asked to have Amman’s probation hostel room searched following the purchase of four bottles if Iron Bru, a roll of Bacofoil and brown parcel tape, that was used to construct the fake vest, but decided it was not.

They said it was a ‘novel step’ and one which risked compromising the surveillance operation.

A last question asked whether Amman should have been stopped and searched by armed police officers on February 2 between him leaving the hostel at 1.22pm and running out of the Low Price Store with a knife at 1.57pm.

But the jury said no further intelligence or suspicious were raised after Amman bought the suspicious items.

They said that none of the experienced surveillance officers ‘considered or suggested the possibility’ that an empty JD Sports plastic bag was being used to conceal a possible suicide belt.

They were directed to return a finding of lawful killing of Amman after the coroner, Mr Justice Hilliard, told them he had decided, with no objection from any interested person, that it was the only conclusion they could ‘safely return.’

Explaining his decision, the coroner added: ‘Each of the officers who shot Sudesh Amman at every stage honestly believed that it was necessary to use force in defence of himself and others, and the amount of force used at each stage was no more than reasonably necessary in the circumstances.’

The coroner thanked the jury for the care and time they had taken in coming to their conclusions and added that the two people who were stabbed in the attack were ‘in all our thoughts.’

The coroner added: ‘Mr Amman was prepared to risk his life in order to try and murder other people.

‘In stark contrast, members of the Metropolitan Police surveillance unit were prepared to put themselves in harm’s way to keep all of us safe, especially the team on February 2.

‘They are owed a considerable debt of gratitude for what they did which I gladly acknowledge.’

Amman had laughed as he was sent to prison after being found with a combat knife and a jihadi flag at his home and was found to be encouraging his girlfriend to kill her parents.

In jail, he boasted of a ‘strong desire to go to the after life’ and openly shared a desire to kill the Queen, become a suicide bomber and join ISIS.

He said he wished he had been involved in the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was executed with a knife in front of Woolwich barracks in May 2013.  

Prison officers searched his cell just weeks before his release and found a pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, written out in Arabic.

A senior officer wrote to the prison governor of Belmarsh jail, asking if he could keep Amman in jail longer, but it was not possible.

Police and MI5 teams believed that Amman was ‘one of the most dangerous individuals’ that they had investigated and it was a question of ‘when not if’ he would launch an attack.

Nevertheless, on February 2 last year he grabbed a carving knife from a shop and stabbed two passers-by, one of them seriously, during a rampage up a busy shopping street in South London.

He was shot dead by armed surveillance officers in front of Boots on Streatham High Road, 62 seconds after the attack began, when he turned and ran at the officers.

However, the inquest heard about three opportunities in the 10 days between his release and launching his attack, which might have stopped the attack. 

Rajiv Menon QC, for Amman’s family, questioned an anonymous senior Scotland Yard officer called HA6, who said he had a ‘well thought-out plan to manage the risk.’

Mr Menon said the plan was a ‘miserable failure’ adding: ‘Two people were stabbed and [Amman] was shot and killed.’

Amman was under surveillance on January 31 when he bought bottles of Iron Bru, Bacofoil and brown parcel tape in Poundland, which they rightly believed he might use to make a fake suicide vest.

He also went into the same Low Price Store on Streatham High Road where he later grabbed the knife, and looked at a section of the shop with sharp knives before claiming he did not have any money.

MI5 and the police convened an emergency joint operations teams meeting that evening to decide what to do but decided to leave him out on the streets. 

They chose not to search his room in the probation hostel in the next two days where they might have found his fake suicide vest, allowing them to arrest him and send him back to jail.

The probation service also decided that his suspicious behaviour was not enough to justify recalling him to prison for another 20 months to complete his sentence.

A third opportunity was missed when Amman, who was wearing a bulky coat, began acting oddly as he made his way towards Streatham High Road on the afternoon of February 2, walking slowly, doubling back on himself.

The inquest jury at the Royal Courts of Justice was asked to reach conclusions on whether the probation service or police could have stopped the attack taking place.

They were asked whether the probation service should have taken steps on January 31 or February 1 to have Amman recalled to prison, as a result of the purchases he had made which ‘raised serious suspicion that he was intending to make a hoax suicide belt.’

They were also asked whether the police investigation team ought to have asked to have Amman’s probation hostel room searched following the purchases.

A last question asked whether Amman should have been stopped and searched by armed police officers on February 2 between him leaving the hostel at 1.22pm and running out of the Low Price Store with a knife at 1.57pm.

Amman was not treated for his injuries because of the possible suicide vest, but he had suffered two significant gunshot injuries and they were not survivable, the jury was told.

They were directed to return a finding of lawful killing after one of the undercover officers known as BX87, broke down giving evidence, saying he thought Amman was going to kill him. 

Questions are now likely to be asked about whether Amman could have been separated from more serious terrorist offenders while in prison.

He was moved into the high security unit in Belmarsh jail where he was seen ‘deep in conversation’ with Ahmed Hassan, who tried to blow up a tube train at Parson’s Green tube station in September 2017. 

Other reports suggested he was mixing with terrorist prisoners including Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, who helped build the bomb that killed 22 people.

In a letter to his mother on July 25, two months after his arrest, Amman wrote: ‘Why do I keep smiling? I never used to smile. Wallahi [I swear] it makes me tear up when I go to jummah prayers with all the brothers. 

‘It is such a beautiful experience, it’s a blessing, you don’t understand. I have never felt this amount of happiness in any mosque, hugging and salaaming [greeting] the brothers.’

The case echoes that of Usman Khan, who stabbed to death two Cambridge University graduates at a prison rehabilitation conference at Fishmongers’ Hall two months before the Streatham Attack.

Khan had failed to reform while in prison for planning to set up a terrorist training camp and had also mixed with serious offenders in jail.

He launched his attack 11 months after his release, after police failed to search his flat when suspicions were raised about his behaviour. He was also wearing a fake suicide belt and was shot dead by police.   

The case of Amman prompted a swift change in the law to prevent terror offenders being automatically released at the half-way point of their jail sentence.

Amman, 20, was released from HMP Belmarsh into the community on January 23, 2020 to serve the remainder of his 40-month sentence on licence.

This was despite pleas from the police and MI5 for Belmarsh to keep Amman locked up over concerns about his extremist mindset.

The Belmarsh governor at the time, Rob Davis, said he was powerless to prevent his release, Amman’s inquest heard.

Amman, convicted in 2018 of 13 counts of collecting material useful for terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications, went on to commit his atrocity 10 days after he was sent to live at a probation hostel in Streatham, south London. 

His case resulted in the Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill, which was given royal assent less than four weeks after the atrocity.

Giving evidence in the Commons as the Bill made its way through Parliament, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland QC told MPs: ‘As we saw in the Streatham attack, we cannot have a situation where an offender – a known risk to the public – is released without any oversight by the Parole Board.’ 

The law applies to offenders sentenced for crimes such as training for terrorism, membership of a proscribed organisation, and the dissemination of terrorist publications.

It ensures terrorist offenders serve two-thirds of their sentence before they are considered eligible for release.

Amman’s inquest previously heard evidence of him revelling in his status as a young terror offender in Belmarsh, and also heard he was determined to commit an atrocity upon his release.

Handwritten notes found in his cell appeared to pledge allegiance to the leader of so-called Islamic State, though it was never proven that they were written by Amman himself.

The inquest heard that it was deemed impossible to conclude the disciplinary investigation into Amman before his release, meaning his detention could not be extended.