Leanne O’Brien takes to Facebook to laud boyfriend Jack Merritt, killed in the London Bridge attack
The girlfriend of a man killed in the London Bridge attack has called him “phenomenal”, saying “together, we will make a difference”.
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The girlfriend of London Bridge terror attack victim Jack Merritt has paid him an emotional tribute, saying they will “make a difference” together.
Leanne O’Brien poured out her heart to her slain boyfriend, 25, calling him “phenomenal”.
“My love, you are phenomenal and have opened so many doors for those that society turned their backs on,” she wrote on Facebook.
“Together, we will make a difference.”
The couple had visited Seville, Spain, to celebrate Mr Merritt’s birthday recently, which he described as “living the dream” in an Instagram post.
Mr Merritt, a Cambridge University graduate and coordinator of the Learning Together charity that aimed to rehabilitate offenders, was killed by Usman Khan, 28, in an attack on Friday.
Fellow Cambridge University graduate, Saskia Jones, 23, who was volunteering at the charity, was also killed.
It comes as the man who fought off Khan with a pole said he “acted instinctively.”
Lukasz, the Fishmongers’ Hall staffer, said he sent his condolences to the families and victims of “this sad and pointless attack”.
“I and several others tried to stop a man from attacking people inside the building. I did this using a pole I found. Someone else was holding a narwhal tusk,” he said.
“The man attacked me, after which he left the building. A number of us followed him out but I stopped at the bollards of the bridge. I had been stabbed and was later taken to hospital to be treated. I am thankful that I have now been able to return home.”
Police shot Khan dead after a group of have-a-go heroes, using a narwhal tusk and a fire extinguisher, were able to get him on the ground.
In total Khan had killed two people and injured three others in his five minute rampage.
His was wearing a fake suicide vest, which prompted police to shot to kill.
Khan, was living in Stafford but was from Stoke-on-Trent three hours north of London.
He had previously been convicted of planning a terror attack on the London Stock Exchange.
Khan had also considered plans to attack the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.
He was jailed for 16 years but was released without a review from the parole board when he had served half his sentence.
Parole officers allowed him to attend the Learning Together seminar organised by Cambridge University after he had hoodwinked authorities into believing he had changed his radical views.
His family said today: “We are saddened and shocked by what Usman has done. We totally condemn his actions and we wish to express our condolences to the families of the victims that have died and wish a speedy recovery to all of the injured.”
The attack has prompted bitter political debate about the length of sentences, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying prisoners should serve every day of their jail term.
Labour has accused the Conservatives of funding cuts to prisons, which they claim fuelled the rise of Islamic extremism.
Mr Merritt’s father David wrote in an opinion piece for British newspaper The Guardian that he did not want his son’s death used for political purposes.
“We should never forget that. What Jack would want from this is for all of us to walk through the door he has booted down, in his black Doc Martens,” he wrote.
TERRORIST LAUGHED AT VIDEOS OF 9/11 ATTACK
It comes as it was revealed that Khan used to carry around a picture of Osama bin Laden and was caught laughing at videos of 9/11 during his teens, new information reveals.
Khan was a sex pest at school and pictured laughing while sharing a poem thanking the workers who helped him rehabilitate, The Sun reports.
The 28-year-old was receiving help and support from Learning Together – an initiative run by the University of Cambridge – after being released from prison in December 2018.
A former pupil at what was then called Haywood High School told The Sun he would ask girls the size of their breasts, ogle at them, wolf whistle and try to touch them.
When he was turned down Khan would intimidate them and brand them “sl*ts” and “w***es”.
“He had a picture of Osama bin Laden on the front of his school planner,” the former pupil, who did not want to be named, said.
“It was like an A5 picture he had stuck on there. We were all disgusted by it. It was awful.
“He would also watch the videos of 9/11 in the lunch hall. We could see him looking at them. Nobody was comfortable.
“Quite a few people reported it. When they did they were brought into an office (at the school) and the whole racism thing was laid down to them.”
Khan left the school about 16 years of age in 2007.
Khan, who had been partaking in the Learning Together initiative, was also used as a poster boy by the program after thanking them for helping him get a computer without breaching his bail conditions.
The program shared Khan’s message of thanks, which was written alongside a photo of the ex-convict appearing to laugh, The Sun reported.
Khan, from Staffordshire, wrote: “I write so I can enter the coldest of hearts, I write so I can speak to those locked off from the world engulfed in the blinding absence of sight ...
“I write so I can express what I feel is right.
“I typed these reflections on the chromebook I received and I am truly grateful to be able to express myself through it.
“I cannot send enough thanks to the entire Learning Together team and all those who continue to support this wonderful community.”
The organisation published the Thank You letter Khan wrote them for the laptop saying they have a “special place” in his heart.
HOW HE CAME TO BE
Questions have since arisen over why Khan didn’t need to face the Parole Board before he was released from prison, The Sun reports.
Khan, from Staffordshire, had been convicted in 2012 for terror offences.
He was part of a nine-man group who plotted to bomb the London Stock Exchange and set up a terrorist training camp in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
The men were inspired by al-Qaeda and had been under surveillance by MI5.
It is understood Khan was taught by Islam4UK’s leader Anjem Choudary, a hate preacher who was freed in 2018.
Judge Justice Wilkie said tthe actions of the group showed a “serious, long-term venture into terrorism” and could have resulted atrocities across the UK.
He branded Khan and two plotters as “the more serious jihadists” of the group.
Khan was banned from entering London but had a one-day exemption to attended the ex-convict event organised.
VICTIMS OF THE LONDON BRIDGE MASSACRE
An American university academic has described in detail the moment the London Bridge stabbing attack began, saying it “felt like a war zone”.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Bryonn Bain said that victim Jack Merritt was the first person to take on terrorist Usman Khan when he went on a stabbing frenzy during a prisoner rehabilitation conference last Friday in London.
“I saw people die, I saw things that I will never be able to unsee,” he told the British broadcaster.
Mr Merritt and fellow Cambridge graduate Saskia Jones, 23, died in the tragedy.
Professor Bain said former criminals attending the conference “stepped up and intervened” to tackle Khan, and people at Fishmongers’ Hall owed their lives to the actions of those who had previously spent time in jail.
He said two men from his workshop immediately ran towards shouts from elsewhere in Fishmongers’ Hall as the attack began, and as shouts grew louder he also went to help.
“That’s when I ran down and saw the scene unfolding there,” he said. “I was able to see the attacker.”
He added: “It felt like a war zone … it felt like total chaos.”
Mr Merritt, Professor Bain said, was “the first line of defence”.
“I want to honour him,” Professor Bain said of Mr Merritt. “I want to honour his father’s wishes which have been explicit to not have his life be used for political purposes to ramp up draconian policies, because that’s not what he was about.”
Mr Merritt’s father criticised newspaper coverage of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pledge to review the early release of convicted terrorists.
David Merritt said his son “would be seething at his death, and his life, being used to perpetuate an agenda of hate that he gave his everything fighting against”.
VIGILS HELD FOR VICTIMS
Earlier, Mr Merritt’s girlfriend sobbed at a vigil for the victims, reports The Sun.
Veterinary science student Leanne O’Brien clutched a toy lobster and was supported by Mr Merritt’s parents at a vigil held in Cambridge.
Hundreds of students and locals turned out and stood for a minute’s silence which was followed by a round of applause.
Meanwhile PM Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn broke off election campaigning to join 300 mourners in a minute’s silence at the London Guildhall, near the scene of the bloodbath.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick and Home Secretary Priti Patel also stood silent as the bells rang out at 11am.
The Bishop Of London hailed the victims, police medics and members of the public “who moved towards danger for the sake of others” during Friday’s atrocity.
Mr Khan said Jack and Saksia chose to “dedicate themselves to helping others” from an early age.
He said at the vigil: “We come together this morning as Londoners to honour and to mourn the innocent lives lost as a result of the horrific terrorist attack.
“The best way to defeat this hatred is not by turning on one another but by focusing on the values that bind us, to take hope from the heroism of ordinary Londoners and emergency services who ran towards danger risking their lives to help people they didn’t even know.
“We come together in condolences but also in a spirit of defiance.”
Meanwhile, a haunting tweet posted by Ms Jones emerged in which she spoke of how she wanted to be remembered.
Quoting the poet Nicole Lyons, she wrote in 2017: “I hope that someday when I am gone, someone, somewhere, picks my soul up off these pages and thinks, ‘I would have loved her’.”
Jack and Saskia had been working with ex-cons the Learning Together event at Fishmongers Hall, organised by the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology.
Usman Khan – freed after a half a 16-year sentence for plotting a bombing – had been a guest at the program’s conference on prisoner rehabilitation when he threatened to blow up the historic Fishmongers’ Hall on Friday afternoon.
Wearing a fake suicide vest, he killed both Mr Merritt and Ms Jones and stabbed three others, including a member of University staff, before he was shot dead by armed police on London Bridge.
Mr Merritt celebrated his birthday with his girlfriend Leanne O’Brien in Seville, Spain just a few weeks ago.
Three other victims of Khan’s Friday rampage remain in hospital, but their conditions have improved.
The London Bridge fallout has become a divisive issue in the UK general election campaign as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used the weekend to tout his tough-on-terror credentials.
“As Prime Minister, I will always back our security services, our police and our troops. I will give them the funding they need and I will boost their numbers,” he said on Sunday.
“I will ensure that they do not come under constant attack from the human rights lobby who would weaken our anti-terror laws.
“But these changes can only be achieved with a Conservative majority government.
ATTACK RESPONDER “NOT A HERO”
The ordinary citizens who disarmed Khan have been widely hailed for their bravery, but the revelation that one of those people was himself a murderer on day release from prison has not impressed the family of his victim.
British media outlets reported that 42-year-old James Ford, who had been at the same prisoner rehabilitation event as Khan, rushed to help restrain him after his knife rampage.
But it was later revealed that Ford is serving a life sentence for the 2003 murder of 21-year-old Amanda Champion.
Champion’s aunt Angela Cox told the BBC that Ford was “not a hero”.
“He is a murderer out on day release, which us as a family didn’t know anything about. He murdered a disabled girl. He is not a hero, absolutely not,” Cox was reported as saying.
“I don’t care what he’s done today, he’s a murderer,” she said.
AUSSIE VICTIM’S PARENTS SLAM UK AUTHORIES
The parents of an Australian woman killed in the 2017 London Bridge attack say British authorities did not learn from their daughter’s death and should have been monitoring terrorist Usman Khan to prevent the latest tragedy.
Brisbane au pair Sara Zelenak, 21, was on a night out with friends when she was killed after she slipped in her high heels as she tried to flee from terrorists Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba.
The release of Usman Khan was not referred to the parole board because it was automatic when he had served half of his sentence.
Ms Zelenak’s mother Julie Wallace, 52, said terrorists must be monitored.
“I don’t think they have made a good choice, if they are going to just let him out they have to watch him,” she said.
“It’s not strong enough, they have got to look after people.”
She said that she and husband Mark Wallace, 51, felt awful when they heard the reports of the latest attack, which killed two people and injured three others.
“I woke up really early this morning and I was just unhappy and then we heard the news, all my hairs on my arm stood up on end, it just brought the whole thing back,” Ms Wallace said.
“There’s just so much pain.”
Ms Zelenak, who had been living in London, was stabbed on June 3, 2017, among eight victims who also included South Australian nurse Kirsty Boden, 28.
First responders at the scene worked on Ms Zelenak for at least 10 minutes but she was unable to be saved.
Those who helped her rang the Wallaces yesterday to check if they were okay.
The family’s liaison officer, who helped them through the ordeal, was on London Bridge paying his respects minutes before the latest attack, she said.
“I’m so glad he wasn’t there,” she said.
“We’ve been inundated with calls.”
The latest attack has stunned Ms Wallace because she said it confirmed that nowhere was safe.
“We all travel and we encourage our kids to go overseas and see the world,” she said.
Ms Zelenak’s parents have become advocates for victims of terror attacks and were in Nice, France, last week attending a conference with 750 other terror survivors and their families.
They set up the charity Sarz Sanctuary, which will be having a fundraiser in Cleveland at 4pm on Sunday, Brisbane time.
The money raised will go towards setting a retreat for counselling for terror survivors to be built in the Noosa Hinterland.
FOOTAGE SHOWS ATTACKER’S RAMPAGE
Dramatic footage filmed by a passenger on a London double-decker bus shows the terrifying moment Usman Khan was shot dead by a police after being pinned to the ground by brave bystanders.
Two brave members of the public chased after Khan after he went on his stabbing rampage.
One of the heroes was armed with a narwhal tusk — ripped from the wall of the heritage-listed Fishmongers’ Hall building — and another with a fire extinguisher.
Armed police were heard shouting “stop moving” twice before shooting Khan at close range.
Tour guides Thomas Gray and Stevie Hurst also risked their lives to pin the attacker to the ground.
The pair, who drive tourists around London in Mini Coopers, jumped out of their car to offer help.
“When we got there he was wielding two knives, one was duct-taped to his hand so all I could do after the guys had held him down and were pinning him to the ground, tried to stamp as hard as I could on his wrist to try and release the knife as it were,” Mr Gray said.
“Someone kicked the knife away, somewhere northbound up London Bridge and then after that the police armed response were really quick, got there almost instantaneously, and at that point we were told he had a bomb vest so we cleared out and got out the way.”
Queen Elizabeth II said in a statement that she and her husband, Prince Philip, were sending their thoughts to everyone affected by the “terrible violence.” She thanked police and emergency services “as well as the brave individuals who put their own lives at risk to selflessly help and protect others.”
OUTRAGE OVER KHAN’S RELEASE
The deadly incident has raised questions surrounding how someone who was electronically tagged to monitor his movements could fool authorities into thinking that he was no longer a threat.
British-born Khan, whose family originates from Pakistan, was jailed for his part in a plan to bomb the London Stock Exchange and fund an overseas terror camp.
Khan, from Stoke-on-Trent, was sentenced to eight years’ jail in 2012, but was released last year after agreeing to wear an electronic tag.
He planned to set up a jihadi training camp in Pakistan controlled Kashmir to be used by British jihadis.
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Justice Wilkie said when sentencing Khan in 2012: “It was envisaged by them all that ultimately they and the other recruits may return to the UK as trained and experienced terrorists available to perform terrorist attacks in this country, on one possibility contemplated in the context of the return of British troops from Afghanistan.”
“At some time, the accused each became a committed Islamic fundamentalist, believing in jihad, that is to say, they wished to support and commit acts of terrorism in furtherance of their religious beliefs,” a court document states.
Originally published as Leanne O’Brien takes to Facebook to laud boyfriend Jack Merritt, killed in the London Bridge attack