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Streatham terror attacker threatened to kill the Queen

Sudesh Amman - Met Police/PA
Sudesh Amman - Met Police/PA

A convicted terrorist who carried out the Streatham attack associated with the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber in prison, an inquest has heard.

Sudesh Amman, 20, stabbed two people on Streatham High Road in February 2020 only days after being released from prison for terror offences.

Whilst he was serving his 40 month sentence in HMP Belmarsh, Amman threatened to “kill the Queen” and told other inmates they would “come under the black [ISIS] flag”. He also expressed regret that he “had not been the one to kill” Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was stabbed to death outside Woolwich Barracks in 2013 by two Islamist terrorists.

Prison officers noticed that Amman, from Harrow, north west London, associated with numerous radical inmates, including Hashem Abedi, the brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi.

Hashem was sentenced to 55 years in prison for helping Salman carry out the 2017 attack, which killed 22 people.

Despite the string of concerning incidents, Amman was released from prison on January 23 2020. He carried out his attack 10 days later.

The evidence was heard as part of the second day of the inquest into the death of Amman, who was killed by armed police 62 seconds after he launched his terror attack thanks to the 24 hour surveillance he had been placed under by the Metropolitan Police.

This week, the inquest heard how the police tried to keep Amman in prison after a pledge of allegiance to ISIS was found in his cell and he told fellow inmates: “I'm not finished with these non-believers yet”.

But the prison authorities said it would not be possible because there was not enough time before Amman was due to be automatically released to process an extension.

The inquest on Tuesday heard how Annam held extreme Islamist views throughout his time in prison, telling inmates that “women should be treated like slaves because that what it says in the Quran”.

In October 2018, around 15 months before his release, a prison intelligence report was filed detailing how Amman “shared extreme desires” including a desire “to kill the Queen”, become suicide bomber, and join ISIS.

The concerning behaviour prompted a report, in which a psychologist warned that “he would be capable of committing a violent offence in the form of stabbing,” the inquest heard.

Jonathan Hough QC, counsel to the inquest, said that in one letter to a friend from prison, Amman referred to himself as a "wild tiger who doesn't obey the law".

He suggested to Ms Louis that this was evidence of "someone with a large ego" in need of status.

Detective Chief Inspector Luke Williams, from the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism unit, told the inquest that following his release from prison, Amman "appeared proud to have been the youngest terrorist offender at Belmarsh... (and) didn't seem remorseful".

The inquest continues.