Malcolm Turnbull leads calls for investigation into how Yacqub Khayre, who was linked to a 2009 terror plot and had a history of violent crime, was able to enact his Isis-inspired attack

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull has led calls for an investigation into why a gunman who held a woman hostage while claiming links to Islamic State had been freed on parole just six months earlier.

Yacqub Khayre, a 29-year-old Somali-born Australian, killed a man before being shot dead by police in a Melbourne suburb on Monday night. He injured three police officers in a shootout in which the hostage was released unharmed. “This is for IS, this is for al-Qaida,” he reportedly told TV station Channel 7 during the siege.

While conservatives seized on Turnbull’s description of the siege as “Islamist terrorism” to call for a new security crackdown and measures to tackle hate preachers, the prime minister demanded the Victorian state government explain whether parole was appropriate for a man with such a lengthy criminal history and who had been previously associated with a foiled terror plot.

Yacqub Khayre: Melbourne siege gunman's history of violent crime and drugs Read more

The siege unfolded on Monday evening in the beachside suburb of Brighton, about 11km south-east of Melbourne’s central business district. At 4pm, police were called to a serviced apartment building in the area after receiving reports of an explosion, and cordoned off surrounding streets.

By 6pm, Khayre emerged from the ground floor apartment where he had been holding an escort hostage – a 36 year-old Colombian woman unknown to him and who he had arranged to meet him at the complex that afternoon through an agency. He began firing at police who had the building surrounded. Three police officers were injured during the gunfire, and Khayre was killed. His hostage, who remained inside, was uninjured.

The body of the building clerk was found in the reception area of the apartment building, and police said Khayre shot the man dead when he first arrived at the apartment complex. This was likely the cause of the explosion noises reported to police.

The clerk was a 36-year-old Australian national born in China, and was recently married. He has a child. Police could reveal little more about the man as they were still speaking with his family, but Victoria’s police commissioner, Graham Ashton, said on Tuesday morning that he was an innocent man caught up in the situation while doing his job.

Police confirmed reports Khayre tampered with his ankle monitor bracelet and are investigating whether he did so in an attempt to lure police to the scene, though said they were already responding to reports of explosions by this stage.

Court documents relating to Khayre’s prior crimes detail a troubled childhood. He came to Australia as a child, arriving with his grandparents as refugees from Somalia via a Kenyan refugee camp.

In time, Khayre’s parents joined him in Australia, but their relationship was tense, the court heard.

In her sentencing of Khayre in 2012, then aged 24, for a series of charges including aggravated burglary and theft, Melbourne county court judge Felicity Hampel described his parents as “conservative, traditional and strict”.

“Your grandfather died towards the end of your secondary schooling and you lost his steadying influence,” Hampel said. “At about that time, it would appear you had already started dabbling in drugs and alcohol, but following your grandfather’s death, you began abusing them seriously.

PM says Australia facing ‘growing threat from Islamist terrorism’ after Melbourne siege Read more

“You did not complete your schooling, and the cycle of drug abuse and committing offences commenced then, and has continued until now.”

Khayre served a period of time in the youth justice system as a teenager from 2007 for more than 40 offences including multiple burglaries and theft, giving a false name and address, possession of amphetamines, car theft and driving offences.

Hampel warned that Khayre was becoming isolated from society and sentenced him to five years and six months in prison, with a non-parole period of three years. This parole period was extended due to Khayre’s difficult behaviour in prison.

In November, he was released on parole, four-and-a-half years into his sentence.

Between his most recent sentence and his release from the youth justice system, Khayre spent 16 months in a high-security prison charged with terrorism offences related to a 2009 Holsworthy army barracks terror plot in Sydney. He was acquitted of the offences and, upon his release, Khayre’s family distanced themselves from him. His drug use continued.

In 2009, Khayre was ordered to take part in a deradicalisation program. By the time of his release from jail in 2016, he was no longer being closely watched by counter-terror police. Police are now investigating whether Khayre may have been radicalised again at some point, or whether the program was effective at all.



Turnbull asked on Tuesday morning: “How was this man on parole?

“He had a long record of violence. A very long record of violence.

“He had been charged with a terrorist offence some years ago and had been acquitted.

“He was known to have connections, at least in the past, with violent extremism. “But he was a known, violent offender. How was he on parole?”

But Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, said Khayre had adhered to his bail conditions in the six months before his death.

The state’s police commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed: “He’s been compliant, including drug tests, attending appointments and observing a curfew.”

Victora, he added, had the toughest parole review system anywhere in Australia.

Victoria’s opposition leader, Matthew Guy, called on Andrews to resign during a heated parliamentary question time on Tuesday afternoon. He joined Turnbull in questioning parole laws and in asking why Khayre was released.

“You are weak, and you should resign,” Guy told Andrews.

In December, the Andrews government introduced a raft of new laws to stop courts from allowing people convicted of serious crimes to serve part of their sentence in the community on parole. The new laws applied for those convicted of the most serious crimes including rape, murder, child sexual abuse and violent offences.

Khayre was granted parole in November and released in December.

Andrews accused Guy of “playing politics with terror”.

“[Doing so] does not keep anyone in our state safe, it is as simple as that, and shame on you,” Andrews said. He added that parole laws would be scrutinised.



Islamic State propaganda agency Amaq claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday morning in an online statement. “The attack in Melbourne, Australia, was carried out by a soldier of the Islamic State in response to the call for targeting the subjects of the coalition states,” the statement read.



But Ashton cautioned against labelling Khayre’s actions as part of a plot, saying Isis “always tend to jump up and claim responsibility every time something happens”.

He said he believed Khayre was acting alone.

Police are now scouring Khayre’s home in Melbourne’s northern suburbs to find a motivation for the attack and insight into why he chose Brighton as the location.

“There is nothing that we’ve found thus far that would suggest to us that this was anything that was planned or done in concert with others,” Ashton said. “There isn’t a sort of ongoing threat in relation to any plot or anything around this individual.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police start their investigations outside apartments in Melbourne where Yacqub Khayre launched his attack. Photograph: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

On Tuesday evening the deputy commissioner, Shane Patton, reiterated the comments.

“I want to stress at this stage the community should feel reassured we aren’t looking for any other people,” Patton said, but he added that security would be increased for sporting and public events occurring over the Queen’s birthday long weekend, which Victoria recognises on Monday 12 June. No threats to any venues had been made, he said.

Of the three police officers injured during the siege, one was treated at the scene, while two remain in hospital. Both were stable, with one requiring surgery for wounds to his face, and the other requiring surgery and skin grafts to his hand, Patton said.

He vehemently rejected a suggestion the counter-terrorism arm of Victoria police had made a “mistake” for not watching Khayre more closely upon his jail release. He praised the counter-terrorism unit, saying police were working on the investigation with Australian federal police.

Patton added that police should be praised for foiling a number of terror plots in Melbourne. In 2015 police made arrests relating to an alleged terror attack being planned for Anzac Day remembrance events. In May that same year, they arrested a 17-year-old from Melbourne who was later found guilty of planning a terrorist attack on Mother’s Day.

In December, police arrested a number of men in raids across Melbourne allegedly planning a Christmas Day terror attack.

“They showed great courage last night in the way they quickly attended to an issue,” he said.

“When they were confronted, they were decisive, they were swift when confronted by a terrorist armed with a firearm.”