MI5 says it could not have stopped Usman Khan, despite knowing he wanted to ‘die and go to paradise’

An MI5 officer claimed the security service could not have prevented the Fishmongers’ Hall attack – despite knowing Usman Khan wanted to ‘die and go to paradise’.

Convicted terrorist Khan, 28, killed Cambridge graduates Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25, and injured three other people at a prisoner education event in London on November 29, 2019.

Khan, from Stafford, who launched his attack with two knives and a fake suicide belt, was shot dead by police after being chased by delegates on to London Bridge.

An inquest at the Guildhall into the deaths has heard that Khan was allowed to attend despite concern that he would return to his old ways upon his release from prison 11 months earlier.

Today a senior MI5 officer, known as Witness A for legal reasons, said a review found the attack could not have been prevented.

She said the security service first became aware of Khan in 2008, as a member of terror group al-Muhajiroun (ALM).

He was linked to a plot to attack the London Stock Exchange and jailed for planning a terror camp abroad.

West Midlands Police picture of terrorist Usman Khan, 28, who launched London attack

Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were both killed in London by terrorist Usman Khan

The officer, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said MI5 was aware that Khan had been involved in violence in prison.

Jonathan Hough QC, counsel for the coroner, asked: ‘Was there also evidence he wanted to die and go to paradise?’

Witness A replied: ‘There was information to that effect.’

Bystanders and police surrounding Usman Khan at the scene of his Fishmongers’ Hall attack

Victim Saskia Jones sat alongside Usman Khan at the London prisoner rehabilitation event

Jurors were told that Khan had retained contact with his co-defendants and other terrorists outside prison.

But, in 2015, MI5 took the decision to close its investigation into him.

Asked whether, in hindsight, she feels that was the right decision, Witness A replied: ‘I do. We had carried out quite a significant period of investigation while he was in prison, we received a steady stream of intelligence while in prison, and we saw no activities of national security concern, therefore it was the right time to close the investigation.’

She added: ‘We cannot investigate people forever.’

The witness told the court that MI5’s review after the Fishmongers’ Hall attack concluded that it ‘could not have taken any actions or materially changed the outcomes of this case.

‘The investigative and operational decisions taken by MI5 in this case were sound.’

The inquests into Ms Jones and Mr Merritt’s deaths continue.