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THE FATHER OF one of the two young people killed in Friday’s terror attack in London has asked UK newspapers not to use his death to spread “hatred, division and ignorance”.
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.
Khan 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.
Both Jones and Merritt had been attending the conference.
The attack has prompted the UK’s Ministry of Justice to review the licence conditions of every convicted terrorist released from prison, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson said was “probably about 74” people.
In a lengthy Twitter thread yesterday, Johnson said the case “highlighted a complicated area of law” and blamed “Labour’s 2008 law” for Khan’s release.
“Those changes meant that although four senior judges considered that Khan was dangerous, he was to be automatically released half-way through because of Labour’s 2008 law. That is why we are determined to change this & ensure dangerous terrorists serve their full sentence,” Johnson said
Writer and blogger The Secret Barrister accused Johnson’s thread of plagiarising their work also said it was false to say that “terrorists are automatically released early from their sentences”.
After Johnson announced plans to change the laws relating to the imprisonment of terrorists, a number of UK newspapers championed the move with the Daily Mail reporting a ‘New Blitz on Freed Jihadis’.
When these headlines were announced last night, father of Jack Merritt accused the newspapers of promoting “vile propaganda” and urged them not to use his son’s image.
David Merritt / Twitter
David Merritt / Twitter / Twitter
Both victims of the attack had received an MPhil in Criminology from the University of Cambridge.
Merritt’s family said the 25-year-old, from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, died “doing what he loved” and had been looking forward to pursuing a career helping people in the criminal justice system and building a future with girlfriend Leanne.
“He lit up our lives and the lives of his many friends and colleagues, and we will miss him terribly,” the statement said.
But they asked for his death not to be used to justify introducing “even more draconian sentences” on offenders.
The family statement continued: “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 Jones, 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.”
- With reporting by Press Association
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The Murdoch Tory press has already ignored this plea and also Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson on the Andrew Marr by trying to blame Labour.
This father is a very, very naive man indeed. He should be suing the British government for facilitating the murder of his son in broad daylight.
@KingBongoHead: he doesn’t want his sons death or his sons image to be exploited by low lifes like Johnstone and the British tabloids, for political gain. I can totally understand where he is coming from.
@KingBongoHead: and the people that lost lives in Birmingham bo***ing should sue the irish state too for their loss.
@Waj Kahn:
Idiotic comparison. Where those who bombed Birmingham out on license from the Irish state?
To my knowledge the perpetrators of the Birmingham bombing have never been convicted.
So how could the victims sue the Irish state??
@Conoroconnor: Go read his Twitter feed. It’s fairly clear that he doesn’t want his son’s death exploited by people he disagrees with politically. He seems to be perfectly fine for people who he agrees with to exploit it politically. People like Ash Sarkar who still think communism is a good idea.
@Waj Kahn: what are you are you on you di.k the irish government or the irish nation had nothing to do with booming Birmingham you gobsh.t
@KingBongoHead: Yeah, you’re definitely the person to speak for the family.
@Terrence Edwards:
Its the same dangerous lefty approach in America with the criminal justice reform bill, they’ve let thousands of violent criminals back out on the streets after deeming their incarceration to be racist, only for some of these ‘people’ to go out and kill, rob, r@pe and beat up totally innocent randomers, again. The big lie over there is that there’s too many black people locked up for no reason whatsoever. Its the same pea brained politics that’s responsible for the murders on London bridge.
@Waj Kahn: Six innocent men convicted by so called British justice. Bermingham bombings certainly cannot be justified. In stating that you fail to mention the Dublin Monaghan bombings which were carried out with the support of British intelligence. Two wrongs do not make a right, but you are very selective in your comment.
@KingBongoHead: whether you like it or not having no remission in jails will make the jails ungovernable .
@KingBongoHead: Not for a second condoning the attacks carried out by Islamic fundamentalist, but perhaps these atrocities were brought about by the illegal invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan and the so called Arab spring . As for pea brained politics the U.S. for the last hundred plus years have interfeard in the political affairs of other nations. Granted all the old empires were guilty of it, but now the superpowers continue this policy that only frement’s disorder and hate.
Great idea, let a psycho out on the streets. He should be in an asylum.
@Diarmaid O’Riordáin: Now we’re finally talking sense, this brainwashed individual was clearly suffering with mental health.
If he had been de-programmed by a physiatrist instead of had his problems fester in prison, maybe he wouldn’t have carried out these acts.
But we will never know either way, because these days people are only viewed as good or evil, there is supposedly no grey area.
No chance of that with the S*n. Words on here won’t allow me to say how bad they are.
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