The Westminster terrorist sent his wife a picture of himself in Mecca and verses from Koran before he unleashed his murderous attack.
The inquest into the deaths of Khalid Masood’s five victims yesterday heard of the jihadi’s final actions before he killed five pedestrians and a police officer and was shot dead.
A jury were told he parked up in St Thomas’s Hospital car park, near Westminster Bridge, and sent the documents to a random group of contacts, including his wife Rohey Hydara.
He selected a number of Islamic texts to justify his attack, but there was no specific reference to what he was about to do.
His wife replied: ‘I need to speak to you urgently. I called you earlier today’, she then added: ‘What is this that you sent me? x’
Khalid Masood, pictured (left) in a police photo and (right) checking into a hotel shortly before he carried out the Westminster terror attack
Masood had already told his children he was ‘going to die fighting for God’ weeks before carrying out the attack
He also hinted at his plans for jihad during a farewell visit to his mother, saying: ‘They will say I’m a terrorist. I’m not.’
The inquest into the victims’ deaths yesterday heard that he may have been attempting to attack Theresa May as she travelled between Downing Street and the House of Commons for Prime Minister’s Questions.
Masood, who regularly injected himself with steroids, began planning the rampage two weeks earlier after his application to work as a teacher in Saudi Arabia was rejected because of his lengthy criminal record.
Angry and heavily in debt, the 52-year-old bought two kitchen knives from Tesco and researched ‘crash tests’ for a Hyundai Tucson which he rented for the rampage. Detective Chief Inspector Dan Brown told the inquest at the Old Bailey it was possible he had also planned to use gas as a weapon, before abandoning the idea.
Kent-born Masood then drove to London before the attack, where he carried out a reconnaissance of the area in his 4×4. CCTV footage shows the Hyundai driving slowly over the bridge.
Masood visited a fish and chip shop in Brighton for a ‘last supper’ before the attack
He then checked into the Days Inn Hotel at Cobham Services on the M25 where he watched Islamic State terror attacks on the internet.
CCTV from the hotel shows him grinning and laughing with the receptionist as he checked out. Masood then drove to Brighton and stayed at Preston Park Hotel where the staff log describes him as a ‘nice man’.
On the eve of the attack, he ate fish and chips and called his wife and children – who were under the assumption he was travelling to Morocco to work as a teacher.
The following morning he researched Prime Minister’s Questions and homemade bombs on the internet before leaving for London.
He carried out another reconnaissance mission around Westminster and spoke to the hire car company by phone and asked if he could extend the rental date.
CCTV footage of Masood at Tesco on 9 March 2017, where he went on to purchase the weapons he would use in the attack