Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman was lawfully killed, jury finds

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The Streatham terror attack could have been prevented had convicted terrorist Sudesh Amman been recalled to prison after police spotted him buying items used in his fake suicide belt, inquest jurors concluded today in the latest in a line of terror disasters for Britain’s security and probation services.

Amman, 20, 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 Amman had been lawfully killed when he was shot on February 2 last year.

Coventry-born Amman, of 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.

The incident followed the Manchester Arena bombing and the Westminster Bridge attack in 2017, and the Fishmongers’ Hall stabbings in November 2019 – all of which also saw killers Salman Abedi, Usman Khan and Khalid Masood spend time planning their atrocities. 

In Amman’s case, police and MI5 officers were so concerned about him two days before his attack – after watching him buy materials it was rightly feared could be used to make a hoax suicide belt – 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. 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’.

The officer said instead that the Metropolitan Police’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 woman – named in reports at the time as nursery school teacher Monika Luftner, 52 – in the back, before knifing a male passer-by in the torso, 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. 

Asked about the mistakes leading to the attack, Dr Joseph Downing, a fellow in nationalism at the London School of Economics who studies security and terrorism, told MailOnline today: ‘That’s clearly incompetence. 

‘The problem is when something like this happens is that the person may do stuff in the preparation for an attack but it may be mundane. When it’s something like buying equipment for a bomb then clearly there has been an oversight. 

‘Because this is something being dealt with between numerous agencies who work to different verdicts of truth, different expertise, it can happen. Like the probation services clearly doesn’t have expertise in counter-terrorism and that’s one of the problems. Working among different agencies is often the problem. 

‘That’s the problem with the checks and balances according to the law. Even if the security services do say they’re identified the problem they can be overruled by other actors and that’s one of the main issues we have today.’

The inquest jury returned a conclusion of lawful killing this morning, after retiring for 11 hours to consider their finding, but said probation ‘missed an opportunity’ to send him back to prison following the Poundland trip.

Jurors concluded the decision not to search Amman’s probation hostel, or search him in person on the day of the attack, did not amount to a missed opportunity. 

The coroner Mr Justice Hilliard, at the inquest’s conclusion, said: ‘Amman was prepared to risk his life… In stark contrast the Metropolitan Police surveillance teams were prepared to put themselves in harm’s way.

‘They are all to be commended for their bravery, and they are owed a considerable debt of gratitude for their bravery.’

Amman’s family already conceded police had little choice but to shoot him, who was born in Coventry and lived in Birmingham and North West London.

And the coroner said the evidence showed the officers who shot Amman ‘at every stage honestly believed that it was necessary to use force in defence of himself and others’.

The inquest, held over three weeks in London, heard Amman was considered ‘one of the most dangerous individuals’ investigated by police and MI5, and heard evidence he maintained an extremist mindset throughout his time in prison.

He was said to have plotted to kill the Queen, pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State, and wanted to commit atrocities.

While in prison, Amman was also said to have revelled in his perceived notoriety as a young terrorist, and was said to have mixed with other high-profile offenders including the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi.

He was automatically released from Belmarsh jail on January 23, halfway through his 40-month sentence for obtaining and distributing material used for terrorist purposes, despite pleas to the prison governor to keep him in custody for longer after a police officer feared an attack would be ‘when, not if’. 

The case resulted in a new law removing the automatic release of terror offenders on determinate sentences, meaning they now routinely serve two-thirds of their sentence before their custody status is decided by a Parole Board. 

The inquest jury heard Amman was shot at six times, with between three and four bullets hitting him.

He suffered wounds in the neck and abdomen, and was pronounced dead at 3.24pm once the scene had been made safe.

There was ‘no indication’ of any involvement from third parties, nor that he had breached any of his licence conditions prior to the attack.

Police defended the decision not to raid Amman’s hostel room following the Poundland haul, stating there was an insufficient time window in which to conduct such an operation. 

Carina Heckroodt, head of the London Extremism Gangs and Organised Crime Unit at the Probation Service, denied it was a ‘missed opportunity’ not to recall Amman to prison on January 31 after he was spotted buying items later used to fashion a fake suicide belt.

But in their conclusion, the jury said: ‘Whilst the jury does acknowledge that several other avenues were explored in order to recall, there was a missed opportunity.’

They agreed that, based on its policy framework, HM Prison and Probation Service ‘could have recalled Amman to prison if 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’.

The strategic firearms commander on the day, known as BX88 to protect his identity, told the inquest: ‘In the context of an armed operation, one person lost his life and others were injured.

‘I have reflected a great deal and I have to say, I have been back through this in my mind from a personal perspective, I don’t see how we could have achieved a more effective result with the circumstances presented to us.

‘I know that sounds harsh because Amman lost his life.

‘We were responding to his actions, and his actions were attempting to kill people.’

Footage from undercover officers, CCTV and members of the public captured Amman’s final 35 minutes, during which he walked slowly to the high street, performing a series of about-turns which police described as anti-surveillance, before stealing the knife.

Members of the public could be seen scrambling for safety in shops as Amman sprinted along the busy street, before swiftly turning 180 degrees to face the officers with his knife raised at them. 

He closed the short distance between them – reckoned to be around one metre (3ft) – within half a second, just as he was shot.

One witness who filmed the incident from a 201 bus travelling south, muttered: ‘This ain’t real, this ain’t real.’

Footage then showed Amman spending around 10 seconds lying on his back and flailing his arms and legs wildly before he stopped moving. He was declared dead 90 minutes later.

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 Parsons 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 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.

Detective Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, senior national co-ordinator for counter terrorism policing, has thanked the armed officers who shot dead Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman after a jury found he had been lawfully killed. 

Speaking outside New Scotland Yard, Mr Haydon said: ‘I want to thank the jury for their careful examination of the evidence in this case, but also for the coroner’s positive comments and praise – both towards the investigation team and the armed officers who responded to the incident.’

He added: ‘I also want to pay tribute to the courage shown by the officers in relation to how they pursued the attacker but also stopped anybody else coming to harm.

‘This demonstrates the true professionalism shown by them but also their bravery in the face of danger.’

Mr Haydon also praised officers for being in ‘the right place at the right time’ to stop Streatham terror attacker Sudesh Amman before any members of the public were killed.

‘Police had real concerns about this attacker – both in relation to his extremist mindset and also what he may do on release from prison,’ he said.

‘It is for this reason that we employed and he was monitored by a very professional and highly skilled team.’

Amman was under 24-hour surveillance by a team of undercover officers before the attack and the inquest found the incident could have been prevented if he had been returned to prison when he bought items that could have been used to make a fake suicide belt.

Mr Haydon said: ‘It is for this reason they were in the right place at the right time to intervene and stop this becoming a murderous attack.

‘Lethal force is rare in this country but as you have heard the evidence in this case, that once the attack had started, lethal force was one of the most effective ways of stopping the attack.’

Mr Haydon also said the Streatham terror attack is a reminder the terrorist threat in the UK ‘is very real’. 

He said: ‘I want to reassure everybody that we work around the clock tirelessly with great determination and effort to combat any forms of terrorist activity in this country.

‘Incidents such as this take up a lot of resources and we use hundreds of officers from across the country, including police staff working with other agencies and other emergency services, and I want to pay tribute to their excellent work.’

He added: ‘I also want to say thank you to the members of the public that came to the aid of those that were injured on that day, staying with them, reassuring them, until medical assistance arrived.’

Mr Haydon said his thoughts were with the two people who received serious stab wounds in the attack, adding: ‘Lastly, a case such as this is a timely reminder that the terrorist threat is very real and the terrorist threat has not gone away.

‘I therefore encourage everybody to remain alert and vigilant, and report anything suspicious to the police.’

The Independent Office for Police Conduct concluded that the Met officers ‘acted appropriately and proportionately’ to the threat that was posed when they fatally shot Amman.

The watchdog, releasing its report upon the conclusion of the inquest, said there was nothing which indicated officers committed a criminal offence or breached police professional standards, and no organisational learning was identified.

Met Commissioner Cressida Dick praised the officers for ‘their professionalism, courage and decisiveness in the most challenging of circumstances – fast-moving, horrific and frightening’.

She added: ‘The attack happened on a busy high street, and quite simply their quick actions almost certainly saved lives.

‘While we have foiled a number of planned terrorist attacks in recent years, unfortunately we won’t be able to stop every attack.

‘Terrorism remains a substantial threat across the UK, and we would therefore urge the public to stay vigilant and report any suspicious activity or behaviour that might be linked to terrorism to police.’