Fishmongers’ Hall terrorist’s brother apologises in court to grieving families

The brother of the Fishmonger’s Hall terrorist Usman Khan has apologised to the families of those killed by the jihadi and insisted his family was ‘truly sad’ about the terror attack. 

The older sibling, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made a direct apology to the families of Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, who were killed by the convicted terrorist, 28, at Fishmongers’ Hall in central London in November 2019. 

He also told the court that Khan had ‘kept everything to himself’ and that his arrest in 2010 after plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange came as ‘a total shock’ to the family. 

In a short statement before giving evidence, Khan’s brother said: ‘First all, sincere condolences to Jack and Saskia’s family. We are truly, truly sad of the events that happened.

‘Whoever’s been affected physically or mentally, we are really sorry as a family – really, really sad. I just wanted to get that off my chest.’

The jury heard that despite living in a three-bedroom house between 2005 and 2010, the brother did not pay attention to what Khan was doing with his life, assuming he was ‘chilling with his friends’. 

Around this time, Khan got involved in gang-related criminality but the witness said: ‘I didn’t know anything about that. Usman kept everything to himself.’ 

After an incident where Khan hit someone with a brick and received a police caution, the witness said he ‘told him off’ but that his brother told him it was because someone had sworn at him.

In 2008, Khan became involved with distributing extremist literature and during this time the house where he was staying was raided.

‘The time he got raided, we got really worried about him. We asked ”what’s going on?” He was saying ”I’ve done nothing wrong”,’ the witness said. 

Later, Khan pleaded guilty to involvement in a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange and admitted planning to set up a terrorist training camp in Pakistan which might send fighters back to the UK.

The witness said the family only found out details of the plot on the news and said: ‘It was a total shock. It was a total shock. It was unbelievable.’

Asked if he had any suspicion that his sibling had become involved in terrorism, he said: ‘Not at all. If we did we would be the first ones to inform, to stop him in his tracks.’

Khan was sent to prison from December 2010 until 2018 but relatives only spoke to him about ‘random things’ during visits, and not his offending, the court heard.

The witness said: ‘He was 19 and we thought he was so young, he was in prison as well, he was so young. 

‘We didn’t want to – in case in prison he loses the plot – we didn’t want to stress him.’

The jury heard that Khan threatened to stop his family visiting if they pushed him to discuss the case.

Khan’s brother said his attitude ‘seemed very positive’ upon his release from prison.

The witness said: ‘He was thinking about getting a job. He was very optimistic about the future, wanted to get married, have a family of his own.

‘We thought: ”Wow, he has (made) progress”.’

After his release from prison in 2018, the witness said Khan would regularly visit the family home but would routinely dismiss any queries from them about his past.  

The brother said: ‘He used to brush it off (and say) ‘don’t think about the past.”

‘We didn’t ask him about his current attitude on religion, but he didn’t seem religious.

‘From what it (his religion) was eight years back … he was a completely different person.’                    

Jonathan Hough QC, counsel to the inquests, asked: ‘In the course of the Sunday visits, the family never got a straight answer out of Usman and what got him into prison?’

The witness replied: ‘No. He said: ”I was young, I was silly, I got into stupid things”.’ 

The terrorists brother went on to say that when he saw Khan the Sunday before the Fishmongers’ Hall attack he was ‘absolutely normal’. 

On the day of the attack, the witness said he heard about the atrocity by reading Sky News at 6pm but did not immediately pay it much attention as he ‘completely forgot’ his brother was in London.

He then received a call from his mother, who was concerned Khan was ‘not picking his phone up’.

He told the inquests: ‘Then it hit me. I thought – ”whoa, no way”. This wasn’t in our wildest dreams. I thought he had been escorted by officers, he will be fine.

‘I said to my mum: ”Don’t worry, he couldn’t have gone on his own”.’

The witness said the concerns he and his mother had at that time were that Khan had been injured in the attack – not the belief that he was potentially responsible.

He said he went to his mother’s house to comfort her, during which time the police arrived.

The witness said: ‘Police said the person who was shot and killed was Usman Khan.’ 

During the inquest, Nick Armstrong, for the family of Jack Merritt, told the witness that despite his claims that his brother kept everything to himself, he was ‘literally standing in the street waving a flag’.     

The witness was shown pictures from local Stoke paper The Sentinel of Khan holding extremist leaflets and waving a jihadi flag in the street, as well as with extremist Anjem Choudary. 

The inquests have previously heard how Khan was involved in a string of violent incidents and ‘extremist bullying’ during his eight years in seven prisons for planning a terrorist training camp, before being released on Christmas Eve 2018.

Jurors were also told Khan had been an ‘influential’ inmate who associated with other high-profile terrorists including Fusilier Lee Rigby’s killer.

He had engaged with prisoner education programme Learning Together while in jail, and he travelled to London from his home to attend a five-year celebration event at their request on November 29 2019.   

In the week prior to the terrorist attack, Khan had bought several items such as knives, a large coat and gaffer tape, and had cut his hair and trimmed his beard in ‘preparation for martyrdom’, police said.

On the day of the attack, Khan hid in a toilet cubicle, shaved his bodily hair, and armed himself with the knives, the inquest heard.

He fatally stabbed Cambridge graduates Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones and injured three others, before telling those who tried to challenge him that he was ‘waiting for the police’.

Khan was pursued on to nearby London Bridge by three bystanders, armed with a fire extinguisher and a narwhal tusk in an attempt to disarm him, where he was shot by police.

The inquests continue.