Choudary meeting spurred on London Bridge attacker

An inquest into the men behind the London Bridge terrorist attack has heard how Khuram Butt, the leader of the attack, was ‘energised’ when meeting ISIS supporter Anjem Choudary.

In total 8 people were killed in the terror attack the 27-year-old carried out with Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, with the three attackers also injuring 48 others.

In 2015 a relative reported Butt to an anti-terrorist hotline, with a friend of the suspect saying that he was ‘like a lion out of a cage’ when he was with convicted Choudary, who led the banned Al-Muhajiroun group.

Butt was turned from an ‘earnest and hard-working’ schoolboy to an extremist who told a colleague the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in a 2013 terror attack was ‘an eye for an eye’, the inquest heard. He began showing signs of extremism in 2013 and two years later his family became concerned he wanted to travel to Syria. The inquest was told of how Butt had bought a ticket to travel to the ISIS hotspot but his family threatened to disown him and report him to the police.