What with the NHS funding hoohar and an England game about to achieve full spectrum dominance, what kind of really important story about failings by officials charged with preventing terrorism could possibly be published today??
Parsons Green Tube Bomber: Officials involved in supposedly deradicalising him considered giving him the all clear 10 days before his attack. Summary today reveals serious failings by police and other officials: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-445231…
Absolutely damning details published today of failings to prevent the radicalisation of Ahmed Hassan, jailed for life for his failed bomb attack that sent a fireball down a London Underground train. Here's just some:
1) Hassan attacked the Tube on 15 September. On the 5 September, his deradicalisation panel involving police & Surrey County Council considered closing his case.
2) That panel failed to appreciate the big picture of serious concerns about his mental health, his full history - and self-confessed account of being trained by IS fighters in Iraq.
Police didn't take fully into account the fact that he kept disappearing. His foster parents and a college tutor were repeatedly raising concerns about the apparently very damaged and ill teenager.
4) When Surrey decided to act, they didn't turn to a nationally-recognised expert on deradicalisation. They just hoped Hassan would settle down at college - and when he made apparent progress there, they took that as a positive sign.
Ron and Penny Jones, Hassan's foster parents, told the BBC they were told to go on a preventing extremism course - after the attack had happened.
We've asked for the security minister to talk to us today about this report. He's not available.
Surrey County Council have conceded in a statement they made mistakes. They also maintain they told the foster carers about Hassan's background. But we've seen the risk assessment - and Penny and Ron Jones were not told that Hassan had confessed to being trained to kill.
