The inquest into the deaths of the Westminster terror attack victims have heard of the past violence of jihadi Khalid Masood
Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood told his children he was ‘going to die fighting for God’ in the weeks leading up to the atrocity.
The inquest into his victims’ deaths heard that during video calls to his younger children, who were living in east London while he stayed in Birmingham, he told them about dreams he had been having.
Anti-terror detective DCI Dan Brown told the Old Bailey: ‘He told them that he was going to die fighting for God.’
In the days before he ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and stabbed Pc Keith Palmer on March 22 last year, he also searched for Birmingham Calor Gas Centre.
Mr Brown accepted it was ‘at least possible’ that he had planned to use gas as a weapon.
The inquest heard Masood drove from Birmingham to Wales to visit his mother, Janet Ajao, and stepfather on March 16 after picking up the vehicle he used to carry out the attack.
Masood was shot outside Parliament after an 82-second rampage in which he killed four pedestrians by driving onto the pavement on Westminster Bridge and stabbing a policeman
Masood said Allah had blessed him with a miracle after his former partner Jane Harvey (pictured) told him their eldest daughter had survived a car crah
Mr Brown said investigators ‘believe this to be what we now realise was a goodbye visit’.
The detective added: ‘As he was leaving the house on March 17 he turned over his shoulder and said, ‘they will say I’m a terrorist. I’m not.”
Khalid Masood, 52, was shot dead by police after he drove a rental car along the pavement of Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing PC Keith Palmer.
The inquests into his victims’ deaths today heard of his long history of criminality and his belief that he had been saved by Islamic miracles.
The coroner was told Masood first began reading the Koran while in custody after he was jailed for two years for slashing a man’s face with a knife at a pub in Northiam, Sussex in 2000.
After his release from prison, he attacked another man with a knife for suggesting he was working for the police.
He ran the knife through his victim’s nose, penetrating the roof of his mouth and through his tongue, the Old Bailey heard. Two inches of the blade broke off into the victim’s jaw.
Masood claimed self-defence for the second attack and was acquitted of all charges except possession of the weapon at a trial. He was sentenced to six months but released after trial for time served on remand.
The hired 4×4 in which he carried out his attack was left crashed into the gates of Parliament
An inquest is now hearing details of the attack in order to rule on the cause of the deaths
The jihadist would later remark that this was one of two miracles Allah had blessed him with.
There was a record of ‘no religion’ when he started his first spell in prison, but while at HMP Lewes on remand for attempted murder he was recorded as Muslim, the court heard.
The two offences for which he was jailed came after an escalating pattern of criminality, starting with violence the 1980s and 1990s.
The Old Bailey heard Masood’s mother Janet Ajao told police he would go out to pubs and clubs looking for a fight as an older teenager.
‘She also described him as an angry person,’ said counter-terror officer Detective Chief Inspector Dan Brown. ‘She was worried he would kill someone through fighting.’
PC Keith Palmer and Spanish teacher and mother-of-two Aysha Frade were among the victims
Pensioner Les Rhodes and American tourist Kurt Cochran were killed on Westminster Bridge
In the early 1990s he began lodging at an address in Tunbridge Wells before he had an affair with his landlady, Jane Harvey.
They had two children together, one in 1992 and another in 1998.
She told police he was a ‘violent, powerful and persuasive’ man who continually beat her throughout their relationship.
In 2004, after his attempted murder acquittal, he moved to Crawley in Sussex where he took a course in teaching English as a foreign language.
During this time he met a woman, from a Muslim background, who he married within months.
She however, moved away and separated from Masood after finding him violent and overly pious.
He would criticise the ‘trash’ TV she was watching, as well as her hanging out with non-Muslim friends.
In March 2005 he journeyed to Saudi Arabia for a short time before returning in November and remaining there until the following year.
Masood went there to teach English and would later travel to Mecca on Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage.
It was at this time his former partner, Ms Harvey, called to tell him that his daughter had been struck by a car crossing the road and was in a coma.
Masood told her that he would pray for her and that he knew she would be alright because he was on Hajj.
After her recovery, he would later cite this as the second miracle Allah had blessed him with.
Spanish teacher and mother-of-two Aysha Frade, 43, from London, American tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, and Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea, 31, all died of their injuries in the terror attack.
The inquest continues.