Greater Manchester Police Apologize for Missed Opportunity Before Synagogue Attack

Greater Manchester police have apologised for a “missed opportunity” to act before an attack on a synagogue.

The force’s chief constable, Sir Stephen Watson, said the phones of the Heaton Park synagogue attacker, Jihad al-Shamie, were seized by officers but crucial data was not examined.

“There can, however, be little doubt that the information contained within these devices would have inspired further investigative action,” Watson said. “It is clear that our not having reviewed the data available to us prior to the attack constitutes a missed opportunity.

“I am disappointed at the prospect of adding to the distress of all of those affected by the terrible events last October. For this, I am deeply sorry.”

Watson’s apology came as a friend of Shamie, Mohammad Bashir, was on Thursday jailed for life with a minimum term of 17 years for a terrorist act that the pair had planned two months before the synagogue attack.

Bashir, 31, and Shamie, 35, travelled by car to the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Swindon, on a hostile reconnaissance mission, Manchester crown court heard.

That took place in August last year. In October, Shamie was shot dead by police after he attacked the synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. He was wearing a fake suicide belt.

Two Jewish men, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died in the deadliest antisemitic attack in Britain in recent memory.

Watson said that now legal proceedings against Bashir were completed, he could share more information about police dealings with Shamie.

He said Shamie was arrested by police in February and September last year.

Watson said: “In conducting an internal review, it became apparent that GMP [Greater Manchester police] had seized al-Shamie’s mobile devices, at the point of each arrest. The significance of the data contents of these devices was substantial in respect of evidencing an extremist mindset.

“Regrettably, I can confirm that the significance of the information stored on al-Shamie’s devices was not realised as they had not been examined before the attack took place on 2 October 2023.”

He said the Independent Office for Police Conduct was reviewing GMP’s past investigations into Shamie.

Bashir pleaded guilty last month to a charge of preparing terrorist acts. He drove his friend Shamie on a 10-hour round trip to MoD Shrivenham, home of the UK’s Defence Academy, which provides professional defence and security education to the British armed forces, the wider UK government, UK industry and overseas personnel.

Normally, up to 4,000 staff, contractors, students and visitors are on site at any given time, the court heard.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence to suggest Bashir had any involvement in the Heaton Park incident but that the planned attack on the defence facility was similar in nature and would have caused multiple fatalities.

Raphi Bloom, who sits on the managing board of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, had been heading to Heaton Park on the day of the attack before receiving a call telling him to stay away.

Bloom said he welcomed the apology and the candour of the chief constable and would let the watchdog investigation take its course.

“We have great respect for Sir Stephen and his officers,” he said. “They have been outstanding in the way they have protected the community, made us feel safe and made us feel reassured.”

Jailing Bashir, Judge Cheema-Grubb described him as a “fully committed jihadist” at the time of the reconnaissance trip. The pair, she said, were “equally engaged” in planning an attack on a British military target “in which you and he expected to kill and be killed”.

She rejected his claim to a probation officer that he no longer held extremist views and regretted his actions. The judge said: “I consider you remain dangerous. You have given no grounds that your attitude has really changed at all.”

The court heard that after the synagogue attack, WhatsApp messages and voice-note exchanges between the pair were uncovered when police analysed the two phones seized from Shamie earlier in 2023.

CCTV footage of Bashir and Shamie at the Al-Sunnah mosque in Cheetham Hill formed a key part of the prosecution case against them. Both wrongly thought they had hidden from cameras and that their conversations would not be heard as they discussed their plans.

After the sentencing, Manchester-born Bashir, who also holds a Pakistani passport, smiled to family members in the upper public gallery of the courtroom as he walked from the dock.