Fishmongers Hall: Police should have more powers to search terror suspects, coroner urges

Fishmongers’ Hall terrorist Usman Khan was confronted by three men including Steve Gallant on London Bridge

Police should have the power to search convicted extremists at random to prevent possible terror atrocities, a coroner has urged in the wake of the Fishmongers Hall attack.

Convicted terrorist Usman Khan killed Cambridge graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, during a knife rampage through the historic hall on November 29, 2019.

Coroner Mark Lucraft QC called for an overhaul of monitoring extremists after they are released from prison, including ways to spot if suspects are hiding violent plots, and demanded action from government, police, and security services to prevent future deaths.

He suggested greater powers for police after hearing evidence that Khan’s rucksack – believed to contain the murder weapons - and his coat concealing the fake suicide vest could not legally have been searched ahead of the attack if he had refused to submit to a check.

“Those involved in managing terrorist offenders on licence may lack a valuable means of addressing risks they pose, namely an ability to carry out a search on a precautionary basis,” he said, suggesting a “licence condition…requiring them to submit to a search by a police officer without the officer establishing specific legal grounds for the search.”

Khan, 28, had been attending a Learning Together prisoner education event on the day of the attack, while Mr Merritt and Ms Jones had been involved in running the scheme.

The Islamic extremist wounded a further three people before he was tackled on nearby London Bridge by members of the public who used makeshift weapons, including a narwhal tusk, to subdue him.

He was ultimately shot dead by police, who believed the fake suicide vest being worn by Khan was real and was about to be detonated.

Khan was jailed in 2008 for involvement in a network of terror cells with ambitions to blow up the London Stock Exchange, but was set free in December 2018 despite fears that he had not de-radicalised.

In May this year, an inquest jury concluded there had been “serious deficiencies” in the management of Khan after his release from prison, highlighting “unacceptable management and lack of accountability”.

They accused authorities of having a “blind spot to Khan’s unique risks”, failing to spot the danger he posed due to his “poster-boy image”.

MI5 had been monitoring Khan and believed he was planning to “return to his old ways”, the inquest heard, but they did not pass on key information to police forces and the extremist’s trip to Fishmongers Hall was not blocked.

The coroner said he did not want to discourage programmes like Learning Together, but raised concerns that students were put together with dangerous offenders without knowing their background and risk assessments for events like Fishmongers Hall were lacking.

He said the owners of the hall should have been told that ex-offenders were due to attend the Learning Together event in November 2019.

“It is a matter of concern that focused consideration was not given to the risks of serious offenders being placed in close and continuing contact with young students”, added Mr Lucraft. “Consideration should now be given to such risks and targeted means of mitigating them.”

He continued that programmes such as Learning Together “should not be ruled out entirely since re-integrating ex-offenders into the community is a laudable aim”.

But said: ”It is important to recognise that not all ex-offenders are alike. Many prisoners on their release will be well rehabilitated and ready to contribute as productive members of society, whereas others will re-offend and may pose a serious threat to those placed in contact with them.

“If providers of higher education are to have alumni or community programmes which maintain contact with offenders after their release from prison, such programmes should be the subject of careful risk management.

“This might in practice involve the organisation having procedures governing what types of offenders might be involved in such a programme; how contact might be maintained and supervised; and what types of events might be arranged. Learning Together did not have such procedures governing its alumni programme.”

The coroner went on in his report to raise concerns that counter-terrorism police could have key intelligence which is not passed on to those monitoring a suspect.

And he called for an overhaul of the way the risk posed by ex-offenders is judged, including the involvement of a forensic psychologist.

The coroner recommended the introduction of full recording of meetings which decide on licence conditions for terror offenders, and added: “The facts of this case give rise to concern that probation officers may give insufficient regard to instances of dishonesty in self-presentation by extremist offenders.”

The inquest jury concluded that Mr Merritt and Ms Jones had been “unlawfully killed” and identified institutional failings. A separate jury found Khan had been lawfully shot dead by police.

Interested parties including the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary have been sent the report and asked for their comments.

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