No training for Prevent officers of London Bridge killer

Officers from Prevent responsible for monitoring convicted terrorist Usman Khan had ‘no specific training’ in handling terrorists, an inquest has been told.

Khan stabbed Cambridge University graduates Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt during a prisoner rehabilitation event at Fishmongers’ Hall on 29 November last year. Two other women were injured in the attack on London Bridge.

Khan, who was armed with two knives and wore a fake suicide vest, was tackled by members of the public with a narwhal tusk, a decorative pike and a fire extinguisher. The attacker, who had been living in Stafford, was then shot dead by police on London Bridge.

A pre-inquest hearing has been told that there was already evidence of a ‘systemic problem’. Nick Armstrong, a lawyer for Merritt’s family said that ‘all the Prevent officers from Staffordshire [said] they had no specific training in handling terrorist offenders.

A full inquest, due to start at the Old Bailey on 12 April next year, will examine how the terror attack happened and if it could have been stopped.

Meanwhile, Steven Gallant is due to have his sentence released after confronting Khan during the London Bridge terror attack while on day release. The 42-year-old was praised at the time for intercepting the knifeman with a narwhal tusk ripped from the wall of the Fishmongers’ Hall, where the attack took place.

The convicted criminal was jailed for 17 years in 2005 for the brutal murder of ex-firefighter Barrie Jackson outside a pub in Hull. Garrett was at the Fishmongers’ hall alongside mentor and conference coordinator Merritt.