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London Bridge attack: Jack Merritt named as first victim of terrorist stabbing

Reports say 25-year-old victim worked for programme which hosted conference attended by Usman Khan

Conrad Duncan
Saturday 30 November 2019 15:52 GMT
London Bridge attack: What we know so far

One of the victims of the London Bridge terror attack has been named as Jack Merritt, according to media reports.

Merritt, 25, from Cambridge, was a course coordinator for the Learning Together programme, which was hosting a conference at Fishmongers’ Hall attended by Usman Khan.

Two people were killed and three others injured in the stabbing attack on Friday afternoon in London.

Khan, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, attacked members of the public with a knife before he was shot dead by police after bystanders overwhelmed him.

Merritt studied law at the University of Manchester before attending the University of Cambridge from 2016 to 2017.

He was named in a since-deleted tweet by his father, David, who described his son as a “beautiful spirit who always took the side of the underdog”.

“Cambridge has lost a proud son and a champion for underdogs everywhere, but especially those dealt a losing hand by life, who ended up in the prison system,” he said, adding that his son would not want his death to be used as “the pretext for more draconian sentences or for detaining people unnecessarily”.

Police have confirmed that Khan was convicted of terrorism offences in 2012 and was released from prison in December 2018 on licence.

‘A proud son and a champion for underdogs everywhere’

The attack has raised questions about why he was released from prison while still posing a threat to the public.

Chris Phillips, a former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office, warned this morning that the criminal justice system was “playing Russian roulette” with people’s lives.

“The criminal justice system needs to look at itself,” he said.

“We’re letting people out of prison. We’re convicting people for very, very serious offences and then they are releasing them back into society when they are still radicalised.”

Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor, said on Saturday that he raised the issue of convicted terrorists being released from prison in a private conversation with Boris Johnson in 2016.

Mr Afzal said he was told there was no money to provide more resources for “one-to-one deradicalisation”.

In response to the attack, the prime minister has said the system of automatic early release is not working.

“I’ve said for a long time that I think that the practice of automatic early release – where you cut a sentence in half and let really serious violent offenders out early – simply isn’t working,” he said.

Additional reporting by PA

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