Sir David Amess killer left Prevent too quickly, review says

Sir David Amess’s killer was exited from the government’s Prevent anti-terror programme “too quickly” and its handling of him was “sub-optimal”, a review says.

Ali Harbi Ali, who killed the Southend West MP in 2021, was referred to Prevent for two years, security minister Dan Jarvis has told the Commons.

He said: “The perpetrator had previously been referred to the Prevent programme and subsequently to the specialist Channel programme between 2014 and 2016, between five and seven years before the attack took place.

“The perpetrator of the attack on Sir David became known to Prevent in October 2014, when he was referred by his school after teachers identified a change in his behaviour.”

The Prevent Learning Review was commissioned by the Home Office and Counter Terrorism Police and found the assessment of Ali’s vulnerabilities were “problematic”, said Mr Jarvis.

Ali was assigned an adviser and, in 2015, assessed as a low terrorism risk and taken off the programme.

Sir David’s family has formally complained about how Essex Police handled this process.

The minister said the report found “record-keeping was problematic and the rationale for certain decisions was not explicit”.

He added: “Responsibilities between police and local authorities were blurred. The tool used for identifying an individual’s vulnerability to radicalism was outdated.”

Conservative MP Sir David was fatally stabbed on 15 October 2021 during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, by IS fanatic Ali.

The minister added: “The case was adopted by the Channel Multi-Agency Early Intervention Programme in November of 2014.

“An intervention provider who specialised in tackling Islamist extremism was assigned to work with him.

“The perpetrator was exited from Channel in April 2015 after his terrorism risk was assessed as low.

“A 12-month post-exit police review in 2016 also found no terrorism concerns. The case was closed to Prevent at that point.

“There were no further Prevent referrals in the five years between the case being closed and the attack.”

Mr Jarvis listed other issues identified in the report:

• The support given did not tackle all the vulnerabilities identified
• The school that made the referral should have been involved to help determine risk and support
• The tasking of an intervention provider was problematic with only one session being provided, rather than two