Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

Are we any closer to stopping the next Usman Khan?

The site of the London Bridge attack, 2019 (photo: Getty)

This weekend is the first anniversary of the London Bridge attack. Usman Khan murdered two young people at an event he was invited to, run by the ‘Learning Together’ scheme, which is part of the University of Cambridge. The conference was designed to celebrate the achievements of people like Khan who had joined the course while serving in high-security HMP Whitemoor. Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt were stabbed to death by the dedicated Islamist, supposedly on community supervision nearly a year after being released from prison for terrorism crimes. Twelve months later, are we any closer to understanding that fatal convergence of perpetrator and victims?

My organisation, the Counter Extremism Project, in association with the University of Staffordshire has just launched a year-long study into the phenomenon of ‘Disguised compliance’ in terrorist offenders. Disguised compliance is what we criminology types call ‘deception.’

It is highly likely that Usman Khan deceived a whole range of professional people on his journey to martyrdom. It is also clear that he is not alone in this lethal deceit. Only a few weeks ago, Austria’s Interior Minister revealed with the sort of candour that would be unheard of here, that the Vienna Islamist extremist Kujtim Fejzulai who murdered four people in a nine-minute rampage earlier this month had ‘fooled’ the professionals charged with his rehabilitation. In France a terrorist who attacked and almost killed two prison officers in the first crime of its kind there was considered a model prisoner. Closer to home in HMP Whitemoor, the extremist who led an attack that almost killed a prison officer in January was eight months into a year-long deradicalisation programme and had been given awards for his good behaviour. The list goes on.

The inquest into Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt scheduled for next April could provide a rare opportunity to understand the nature and extent of Khan’s murderous deception and to hold others to account for it.

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