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A VIGIL WILL be held to pay tribute to the victims killed in the London Bridge terror attack and to honour the emergency services and members of the public who responded to the incident.
Former University of Cambridge students Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25, were fatally stabbed by 28-year-old convicted terrorist Usman Khan in the attack on Friday.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will be among those who are due to gather at 11am this morning at a remembrance service at Guildhall Yard, where Londoners will be able to lay flowers.
It comes as West Midlands Police said a 34-year-old man arrested in Stoke-on-Trent on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts has been recalled to prison due to a suspected breach of his licence conditions.
Officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit arrested the man after a search of his home address on Saturday and inquiries into the suspected offences are continuing.
The force has said that there is no information to suggest that the arrested man was involved in the incident at London Bridge.
Khan, 28, was on licence and wearing an electronic monitoring tag when he launched the attack, which injured three others, after he was invited to the prisoner rehabilitation conference on Friday afternoon.
The attack has prompted the Ministry of Justice to review the licence conditions of every convicted terrorist released from prison, which the UK prime minister Boris Johnson told the BBC was “probably about 74” people.
Johnson has vowed to take steps to ensure people are not released early when they commit serious offences.
But the family of Merritt, from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, asked for his death to not to be used to justify introducing “even more draconian sentences” on offenders in a heartfelt tribute released on Sunday.
“He lit up our lives and the lives of his many friends and colleagues, and we will miss him terribly,” they said.
Jack lived his principles; he believed in redemption and rehabilitation, not revenge, and he always took the side of the underdog. We know Jack would not want this terrible, isolated incident to be used as a pretext by the government for introducing even more draconian sentences on prisoners, or for detaining people in prison for longer than necessary.
Saskia, a volunteer with the scheme from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, was described as having a “great passion” for providing support to victims of crime by her family.
In a statement, they said: “She was intent on living life to the full and had a wonderful thirst for knowledge, enabling her to be the best she could be.
“Saskia had a great passion for providing invaluable support to victims of criminal injustice, which led her to the point of recently applying for the police graduate recruitment programme, wishing to specialise in victim support.”
Khan, who was living in Stafford, was given permission to travel into the heart of London by police and the probation service.
Convicted of terror offences in February 2012, he was released from prison on licence in December 2018, halfway through his 16-year prison sentence.
He launched the fatal attack at an event held by Learning Together, a programme associated with the university’s Institute of Criminology, at Fishmongers’ Hall near London Bridge.
Armed with two knives and wearing a fake suicide vest, he was tackled by members of the public, including ex-offenders from the conference, before he was shot dead by police.
One of the three people injured in the attack has been allowed to return home while the other two remain in a stable condition in hospital, Met Police said.
No-one else is being sought over the attack.
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Blood on the hands of the UK government for allowing that $cumb@g walk the streets. The price of bullets bought wholesale about to cents each. Cost (financial and moral) of prison and release in this case was far too great. To use language ISIS would understand… OFF WITH THEIR HEADS…
@Gigi: I think a calm methodical approach will work better. Do you think executing IRA men in the 70s and 80s would have made things better or worse?
@Squiddley Diddley: Lol. The calm and Methodical approach! If only they had you present when that knife yielding Jihad killed those people. Maybe you could have Yoga’d some sense into him. Ya Wally!
Their combined ages says it all… not even 50. Such a terrible waste of human life. RIP
So this young guy with his whole life ahead of him gets stabbed to death in broad daylight on London bridge and the only thing his family can say in a nutshell is “please don’t be too hard on Jihadi murderers” What a fvcking joke.
After the family of one of the victims pleased with Boris Johnson not to use their son’s murder as a political message, he simply ignored the victims family wishes and blames Labour Johnson has no sense of morality or compassion.
@Ossi Fritsche: Isn’t that what you have just done?
@Morning Gus: Meant to be pleaded not pleased auto correct
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