'Medium Risk': MI5 Had Been Investigating London Bridge Terror Attacker for Years

© AP Photo / Alastair GrantForensic police investigate an area in the London Bridge area of London, Monday, June 5, 2017.
Forensic police investigate an area in the London Bridge area of London, Monday, June 5, 2017. - Sputnik International
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The three terrorists ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge in a van just after 10pm on 3rd June 2017, then ran through Borough Market stabbing people. The assault lasted 10 minutes and only ended when the attackers charged armed police officers and were shot dead.

British domestic spying agency MI5 knew of several occasions when two of the men involved in the 3rd June 2017 London Bridge terror attack met in the weeks before the incident, but allegedly didn’t realise what they were planning, the inquest into the atrocity has heard.

A senior MI5 officer - known as 'L' - on Wednesday told the inquest attack ringleader Khuram Butt had been under MI5 investigation since 2015 due to suspicions he wanted to commit a terror attack - and investigators had video evidence indicating Rachid Redouane visited Butt’s home in March 2017, and knew of a barbecue Butt held in May at which Redouane was present, and a trip the two made together out of London.

The officer claimed Redouane hadn’t been identified at the time, but admitted MI5 possessed intelligence suggesting Butt and a Moroccan man, Rachid, were associates and had socialised on a number of occasions.

The official acknowledged the agency could’ve linked Butt to Redouane and the third attacker, Youssef Zaghba, if it’d conducted inquiries prior to the attack, but alleged no intelligence relating to attack planning emerged from MI5’s extensive investigation into Butt.

Jonathan Hough QC, barrister for the bereaved families, accused the intelligence agency of major failings, suggesting “if there had been an effective investigation of Butt with all the tools at MI5’s disposal…it would or should have identified these individuals as significant associates, people worth looking into?”

“I believe our investigation could certainly have fully identified Redouane and Zaghba as associates of Butt, but…it would only have identified them as social associates rather than significant ones,” L responded.

Missed Opportunities

The operative also said Butt’s teaching at Ad-Deen school - linked to an alleged extremist - was a safeguarding issue for the police not MI5, and neither MI5 nor the police determined which school Butt taught at, despite it being less than a mile from his home and him travelling there most days. A Google search conducted by MI5 suggested he worked elsewhere - despite Zaghba teaching at the school too.

Hough went on to note the numerous links between the attackers that could’ve enabled MI5 to identify them in advance, which included them being in regular phone contact, meeting repeatedly at a gym, swimming together on Sundays and Redouane and Zaghba occasionally using Butt’s Corsa car.

L told the inquest MI5 assessed Butt posed a “medium risk” of staging an attack independently, but had weak capability and posed no risk of engaging in spontaneous violent extremism - they also denied any information was withheld from counter-terrorism police, and claimed a call to the UK’s official anti-terrorism hotline in September 2015 from Butt’s brother-in-law, warning of increasing extremist behaviour, hadn’t been passed to MI5, and even if the agency had received the intel it wouldn’t have made any difference to MI5’s assessment.

Butt’s alleged to be the first person to have killed on British soil while under active investigation by MI5 and counter-terrorism police.

On 3 June 2017 three terrorists deliberately drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before crashing on the south bank of the River Thames.

Khurram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22 then ran to the nearby Borough Market area and began stabbing people in and around restaurants and pubs, before being shot dead by police.

Xavier Thomas, 45, Christine Archibald, 30, Sara Zelenak, 21, Sebastien Belanger, 36, James McMullan, 32, Kirsty Boden, 28, Alexandre Pigeard, 26, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39, were all killed in the attack.

The inquest continues.

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