This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A crucial warning about the danger posed by the terrorist who led the London Bridge attack was not passed to a police investigation into him more than 18 months before the atrocity took place, an inquest has heard.

The revelation about the apparent failing came during evidence at the Old Bailey in London on Tuesday from a senior Metropolitan police counter-terrorism officer who began investigating Khuram Butt in 2015 over concerns he was planning a UK atrocity.

The senior detective, known only as witness M, said a call from Butt’s brother-in-law Usman Darr in September 2015 to the anti-terrorist hotline was not passed to him or his team and could have been an early warning of the danger Butt posed.

The error was not contained in the public version of two reports into the 2017 terrorist attacks in the UK written for the government and by parliamentarians.

On 3 June 2017, Butt, 27, and two other terrorists killed eight people during a 10-minute attack in which they ran over pedestrians then stabbed people with 12-inch (30cm) knives.

The inquests into the deaths heard a high priority investigation called Operation Hawthorn was launched into Butt in 2015 by MI5 and police.

Witness M said it was immediately known Butt associated with a banned extremist group, al-Muhajiroun, in which the radical preacher Anjem Choudary was a key figure.

Butt was initially assessed as aspiring to carry out an attack, but lacking capability, witness M said, with MI5 leading the inquiry and passing intelligence to Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command.

Questioned by Jonathan Hough QC, counsel to the inquests, the officer said it was “wrong” that the call from Butt’s family warning of his growing extremism did not come to him.

Hough read out a note of the brother-in-law’s call: “The caller to the anti-terrorism hotline states that he has noticed radical changes in the personality of Khuram Butt. Butt has been distributing anti-western texts, WhatsApp and links to jihadi-type sites.

“[Butt] has become increasingly extreme in his views.”

Hough asked: “Would you accept that where you have the situation of a family member calling to express concerns about somebody who happens to be under investigation, it’s very unsatisfactory that the investigation team doesn’t hear of that report?”

Witness M replied: “In short, yes. It denied us, really, the option of discussing that information with MI5, and how it fitted into the bigger picture, and denied us the option of what action to take subsequently to receiving that information.”

Witness M explained how information received by the anti-terrorist hotline was treated: “So, just as a general process, you phone the anti-terrorist hotline, it goes into our 24-hour reserve office, it gets recorded, and this is the exact record of what was said. It would then get passed to our intelligence section for assessment, and where needed, dissemination, and then there will be activity or not on the back of that assessment.”

Hough continued: “Surely the fact that somebody is prepared to do this tells you something about the degree of concern that the subject is generating in those around them?”

“I agree,” replied the officer.

Later witness M said human error and a lack of supervision were to blame: “This was not satisfactory, this should have been shared with the investigation [into Butt] and MI5.”

The detective said Darr was never spoken to about his concerns over Butt. The information was instead passed to teams investigating al-Muhajiroun and its successor groups, which are linked to scores of people who became involved in terrorism.

Last week, the inquest heard Darr had to be physically separated from Butt in September 2015 after becoming enraged when Butt defended Islamic State for burning to death a captured Jordanian pilot, which was filmed and released as a propaganda video.

The Guardian understands the error in handling the warning information about Butt to the hotline was contained in the private full version of reviews carried out by police and MI5 themselves, which was overseen by the barrister David Anderson QC.

Butt is believed to be the first terrorist to have killed while under active investigation by police and MI5.

Witness M said counter-terrorism investigators were under huge pressure, which ratcheted up even further after the November 2015 Paris attacks and after Westminster was attacked on 22 March 2017. The investigation into Butt was twice suspended by MI5.

“I can’t stress strongly enough, just post-Paris, what the operating environment was like after that event within the UK and abroad,” the officer said. “It was an unprecedented time for us and across MI5 and the police. Post-Paris … just threw up new attack planning, sustained attack – planning … It was a very intensive period.”

On 21 March 2017 the investigation into Butt was suspended by MI5 and did not resume until six weeks later on 5 May, less than a month before the London Bridge attack. Witness M said: “The reason for suspension was in relation to resourcing constraints.”

The detective said he did not know Butt was associating with the men who would be his fellow attackers: Rachid Redouane, 30, who bought the knives, and Youssef Zaghba, 22. He also did not know that nearly every day Butt was teaching young children at an Islamic school in east London, as well as attending Sunday swimming sessions.

Witness M said police consulted prosecutors in 2015 about potential charges against Butt for disseminating terrorist material, but did not have enough evidence.

Earlier on Tuesday, the inquest heard one of the victims died after being stabbed through the heart.

James McMullan, 32, from Brent in north-west London, had been watching football in a nearby pub when he became caught up in the attack.

A Home Office forensic pathologist, Robert Chapman, told the inquest McMullan was stabbed with such force that a knife pierced his breastbone and punctured his heart.

Another of those stabbed suffered six knife wounds. Alexandre Pigeard, 26, a French restaurant worker, also died quickly, Chapman said. One wound to his neck cut the jugular vein.

As well as McMullan and Pigeard, those who died were Chrissy Archibald, 30, from Canada, Sebastien Belanger, 36, a French chef, Kirsty Boden, 28, a nurse from Australia, Ignacio Echeverría Miralles de Imperial, 39, a Spanish national, Xavier Thomas, 45, a French national, and Sara Zelenak, 21, an Australian national.

MI5 is due to face questions next week as the inquest continues.



