This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A man who was arrested by police investigating the murder of a security guard at a New Year’s Eve party in central London has been charged with firearms offences. Imran Mostafa Kamel, the son of the radical preacher Abu Hamza, appeared in court on Thursday over the allegations.

Scotland Yard said the 26-year-old, from Ealing in west London, was charged with possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear or danger and possession of a firearm when prohibited for life.

He had been arrested at his home on Tuesday in connection with the killing of Tudor Simionov, a 33-year-old security guard from Ilford, in east London. The firearms charges are not directly related to that incident, the Metropolitan police said.

Simionov was working outside a private event at Fountain House in Park Lane when he was attacked at about 5.30am on 1 January.

He was stabbed to death as he tried to stop gatecrashers storming into a party.

The Metropolitan police said the charges were in connection with a separate incident at the same place, shortly after that attack, in which no firearm had been discharged.

Two of Simionov’s colleagues, aged 29 and 37, were also stabbed during the incident, as was a 29-year-old woman. Their injuries are not life-threatening.

Kamel was remanded in custody to appear at another, as yet unidentified, court on Thursday 31 January.

On Wednesday, Simionov’s partner, Madalina Anghel, said he had come to the UK from Romania for a better life. She told the London Evening Standard: “Right now I can’t think about him in the past. He was my future husband and we came to London from Romania for a better life. I can’t explain in words how much pain I am in.

“He was a really good man. We were happily and excitedly talking about having children together.”

Leroy Rose, 25, gave Simionov first aid immediately after the attack. He told the Standard the security guard was a hero. “He never said a word, he was in a shock ... He is a hero, he died trying to save his colleagues.”

Simionov was the second person to die in a knife attack in the capital in 2019, after a woman was stabbed in Camberwell, in south-east London. Charlotte Huggins, 33, died from a single stab wound, a postmortem examination found.