Streatham terrorist was released from jail despite hinting at attack to inmate

Sudesh Amman showed support for ISIS before stabbing two people in Streatham days after his release.

A terrorist who was gunned down mid-knife rampage in south London showed support for ISIS and suggested to another inmate he would carry out more attacks before his release.

Sudesh Amman was shot dead by police marksmen after stabbing two bystanders on Streatham High Road on February 2, 2020. Both victims survived.

The 20-year-old, originally of Harrow, north-west London, had been released from HMP Belmarsh 10 days earlier where he was jailed for six counts of possessing documents containing terrorist information and seven counts of disseminating terrorist publications in November 2018.

He was released in January 2020, two-thirds of the way through his three-year and four-month sentence.

But intelligence suggested he ‘retained extremist views throughout that time and there were concerns about his release into the community’, an inquest heard today.

Detective superintendent Dominic Murphy, senior investigating officer at the Metropolitan Police, revealed Amman had ‘told another prisoner he was “not finished with these non-believers yet”, which was a direct quote.’

Hand-written notes in Arabaic which ‘appeared to show loyalty’ to ISIS were found in his cell not long before his release.

Officers petitioned the prison to keep him in custody beyond his automatic release date but the request was turned down.

Two days after his release, Amman was seen looking at knives in a shop and purchasing items that could be used to create a hoax suicide belt, the inquest heard.

Amman was put under 24-hour surveillance and officers on his tail were given permission to carry guns.

On the day of the attack, he was seen leaving his bail hostel at around 1.25pm and ‘walking very slowly, with a white bag across his chest’, the High Court judge Mr Justice Hilliard said.

A total of nine officers were following close behind, four on foot and others nearby with vehicles.

At 1.57pm, he entered a shop and grabbed a knife from a display unit, running straight past an officer who was about to follow him into the shop.

The coroner said Amman then began stabbing members of the public.

He said: ‘As he ran and within a few seconds, Amman stabbed a lady in the back outside the White Lion public house.

‘A few seconds later while still running, he stabbed a man by Cash Converters, in the right side of his torso.’

Amman, originally from Coventry and of Sri Lankan descent, turned to face two officers who were chasing him while still holding the knife before they opened fire, with one bullet shattering a shop window.

Amman’s rampage lasted just 62 seconds and he died at 3.24pm of wounds sustained to the neck and abdomen. 

The inquest revealed ‘concerns over his mental health’ had been raised when he was at school and that he first came to the attention of police when he attacked other pupils in 2016.

Amman was later convicted for threatening people with a weapon in a public place.

He would later use the messaging platform Telegram to distribute terrorist material under the name ‘@strangertothisworld’ and believed he had gained ‘celebrity status as the result of being a convicted terrorist’.

The inquest, which is being held at the Royal Courts of Justice, is expected to continue for three weeks.

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