London Bridge terrorist Youssef Zaghba's mother 'feels pain' of son's victims

The mother of London Bridge terrorist Youssef Zaghba has said she "feels the pain" of her son's victims and their families.

Speaking at her home in Italy, Valeria Collina told me that she did not believe Youssef Zaghba was dangerous, and thought he was happy in his job in London.

Her son was born in Morocco, and she converted from Christianity to Islam when she married her Moroccan husband.

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She had this message for the families of the victims who who were killed, and those who were injured.

She said: "I say I can understand their pain because I feel it too. I don`t know if there is any sense in asking for forgiveness, but if there was then I would ask for it.

"There are no words to explain my feelings because it's such a horrible thing. It's something that should never happen.

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"But there is one thing I can do - I can make a commitment to combat this, me personally.

"I am part of the Islamic community therefore on its behalf I can explain what the religion is truly about - which is not what the extremists are doing."

Zaghba first came to the attention of the Italian authorities in March 2016 when he was detained at Bologna Airport.

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He was travelling alone and with only a small amount of luggage on a one way ticket to Istanbul, and police believed his final destination was Syria.

"The police at the airport called saying, ''Do you know your son is going to Istanbul?'' I said 'no'. They asked me if I wanted them to stop him. I said 'yes, absolutely'."

The Italian authorities have told the media how Zaghba said he was "going to be a terrorist" but his mother insists that was a misunderstanding.

She said he made a mistake because his Italian was poor, and said "terrorista" instead of "turista" - which means tourist.

Giuseppe Amato, the Italian prosecutor who investigated Zaghba told me that he was considered a sympathiser, rather than someone who had committed an offence.

But police monitored his movements, and knew he was travelling to and from London. He wouldn't be drawn on whether the British authorities had failed.

He said: "Once a suspect is out of our country, it's the responsibility of others to investigate and monitor him as they think is appropriate. I can't judge the actions of other countries, but we monitored him every time he came back here."

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Ms Collina was not concerned in the months after the attempted Istanbul trip because she knew the Italian authorities were monitoring him and would prevent him travelling to Syria.

She thought he was getting on with his life in London.

When she saw the news about the attacks in London on Saturday night, she tried to call him and became worried when she couldn't reach him.

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Two days later the police came to tell her Zaghba was one of the attackers.

She told Sky News that her final conversation with him was last Thursday, and he seemed sad.

He talked about a garden near his home, and with hindsight she believes he was referring to the Paradise described in the Koran.

I asked her if she thought her son was in Paradise. She said she would rather not answer that question, and tears began to roll down her cheeks.

She said she wanted people to know how sorry she was.