The family of Sir David Amess told of their fury yesterday after a report revealed his killer was dismissed as a ‘very low’ terror threat just months before he bought a knife to hunt MPs.
The murdered MP’s daughter Katie Amess said Prevent was ‘not fit for purpose’ after Ali Harbi Ali, 29, was discharged by the Government’s de-radicalisation scheme ‘too quickly’, just months before he bought a foot-long carving knife as he started planning a terrorist atrocity.
As details of the case were fully revealed for the first time yesterday in a Prevent review published almost four years on from the murder, Sir David’s widow Lady Julia Amess said the family had been ‘essentially gagged’ for years about Prevent failures.
Ali was referred to Prevent in 2014 and was accepted onto the Channel counter-terrorism programme after he ‘expressed an interest to travel to a more Islamic state as he said he could no longer live among unbelievers’.
But the case was closed ‘too early’ in 2016 following a ‘problematic assessment’ that ‘the CT threat is very low’ based on just one meeting with Ali at McDonalds.
The decision meant experts were unaware of Ali’s plans developing from going to Syria to carrying out an atrocity in Britain.
The Islamic State fanatic went on to stab Sir David outside his constituency surgery in Essex in October 2021 and was sentenced to a whole-life order in 2022.
Yesterday Lady Julia Amess said: ‘I am very pleased that the failures of Prevent are now in the public domain – we were aware of them but were essentially gagged.
The murdered MP’s daughter Katie Amess (right) said Prevent was ‘not fit for purpose’
Ali Harbi Ali, 29, was discharged by the Government’s de-radicalisation scheme ‘too quickly’, just months before he bought a foot-long carving knife as he started planning a terrorist atrocity
‘We are determined to keep up our fight for a public inquiry which we believe the family (and others) deserve and more importantly for our family, Sir David deserves.’
Her daughter compared Prevent failures in the case to that of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, suggesting the atrocity last year may not have happened if there had been a full public inquiry into her father’s death.
‘It has been very hard knowing that the Prevent programme failed in so many ways without being able to talk about them publicly,’ she said.
‘My father gave his life for this country.
‘Given the similarities the Southport killer and the man who murdered my father and the multiple failing of Prevent in both cases, it is wrong and illogical to have an inquiry into one and not the other.’
Ali was first referred to Prevent by his schoolteacher at Riddlesdown college, who was worried he had gone from an ‘engaging student who had performed well at school and appeared to have a bright future’ to spurning an offer to study medicine at St George’s, University of London because Ali considered university student loans to be ‘haram’.
The review found Ali’s ‘demeanour, appearance and behaviour’ had changed as his Islamic views became more extreme and there were ‘fears of radicalisation’.
He was referred for support under the Channel counter-terrorism programme, but experts concluded he was a ‘pleasant and informed young man’.
Katie Amess takes part in a candle lighting ceremony during a reception to mark Holocaust memorial day
The review found Ali’s ‘demeanour, appearance and behaviour’ had changed as his Islamic views became more extreme and there were ‘fears of radicalisation’
Ali captured on CCTV walking around the gates of the Houses of Parliament around a month before the fatal stabbing of Sir David Amess in Essex
During his Old Bailey trial, Ali bragged about outwitting Prevent by hiding his twisted ideology: ‘Ever since I had a visit from the police in 2014, winter time, I kept shut and never spoke about that again or even politics stuff.’
He recalled meeting a Channel expert at a shopping centre in Croydon: ‘We were walking around the Whitgift Centre.
‘He was wearing sunglasses in doors, saying this is halal [Islamically permitted] this is halal. I said ‘yes’ and thought they would leave me alone afterwards, and they did.’
But far from changing his mind, Ali’s warped ambitions only grew from wanting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State to planning to kill one of the hundreds of MPs who had voted for airstrikes in Syria in 2014-15.
He bought a knife from Argos in 2016 and within three years, he was regularly carrying the weapon in a rucksack ready to kill any MP he came across, strolling around the Houses of Parliament and MP constituency surgeries on the prowl for a victim.
Finally, he settled on Sir David Amess as he openly advertised his constituency surgeries.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis told MPs: ‘The assessment in terms of the perpetrator’s vulnerabilities was problematic, and this ultimately led to questionable decision making and sub-optimal handling of the case during the time he was engaged with Prevent and Channel.
‘The reviewer ultimately found that while Prevent policy and guidance at the time was mostly followed, the case was exited from Prevent too quickly.’
Much-loved: A floral tribute left at the scene thanks Sir David Amess for his work to support Surfers Against Sewage
The report highlighted six issues, including ‘problematic’ record keeping; the rationale for decisions not being explained; responsibilities between police and the local authority being blurred; an outdated tool for identifying vulnerability to radicalisation; a failure to involve the school who made the referral; and only one intervention session being provided instead of two.
Mr Jarvis said many of the Prevent issues had since been resolved but recommendations from the report have been implemented.
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Matt Jukes said the management and handling of Ali’s case ‘should have been better’ adding: ‘It is critical that we use reviews such as this to ensure the system works now, and in the future, so that other families are spared the pain felt by the loved ones of Sir David.’
