UK: Convicted jihad terrorist had friendly chat with woman at deradicalization event, then stabbed her in the neck
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
“When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks…” (Qur’an 47:4)
The obvious lessons regarding deradicalization and subjecting unsuspecting members of the public to unnecessary danger will not be drawn.
“Jihadi terrorist Usman Khan sat beside prisoner rehab volunteer, 23, moments before fatally stabbing her in the neck in Fishmonger’s Hall attack, inquest hears,” by Arthur Martin and Jack Wright, Daily Mail, April 13, 2021:
A convicted terrorist calmly chatted to a Cambridge graduate at a prisoner rehabilitation conference before stabbing her in the neck, an inquest heard yesterday.
Jihadi Usman Khan was photographed sitting one seat away from Saskia Jones, 23, in the banqueting hall at Fishmongers’ Hall in central London in November 2019.
Video footage showed Khan enjoying brunch and mingling with delegates in conference rooms which are lined with royal crests and a portrait of the Queen.
Staff and guests were unaware that the terrorist was wearing a fake suicide vest under his jacket and had three knives in his bag.
During the lunch break, Khan went to the men’s toilets and taped an eight-inch kitchen knife to each hand.
When he opened the door he saw 25-year-old Jack Merritt – another Cambridge University graduate who was helping to run the Learning Together rehabilitation programme – and stabbed him 12 times.
Police later found Khan’s prayer book and a third knife inside a bag in the toilet. He had inscribed the knives with the symbol of Allah.
Khan then moved towards the cloakroom where Miss Jones was standing and plunged a knife into her neck. Both victims died of their wounds minutes later.
At the time of the attack, Khan was on licence and was wearing an electronic tag.
He had been released the previous year after serving eight years for terror offences, including plotting to attack the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
Khan later stabbed criminology graduate Stephanie Szczotko in the arm before maiming fellow staff member Isobel Rowbotham….
DCI Brown replied: ‘Yes, we don’t know what the content of that conversation was.’
Khan scratched a symbol meaning ‘Allah’ into the blades he used to kill the victims, the inquest heard….
During the hearing today, statements and pen portraits were read aloud on behalf of the victims’ loved ones.
Jurors heard that Mr Merritt had worked at The Punter Pub in Cambridge for a short time where his boss believed he was ‘destined to do great things’ and remembered him for his ‘swagger.’…
Friends from Manchester University, where Mr Merritt studied at undergraduate level and achieved a First, said: ‘It was clear that Jack was intelligent, but when we started to study miscarriages of justice in further detail, it became clear how strongly Jack felt about criminal justice.’…
‘But Jack was also angry, frustrated, selfless and stubborn. He was angry because he saw our society failing those most in need….
Yes, but not in the way he thought.