Westminster attacker told mother: 'They’ll say I’m a terrorist, I’m not'

Khalid Masood, who killed five people in last year’s Westminster Bridge attack, told his mother not to believe people who labelled him a terrorist when he saw her for the last time, an inquest into his victims’ deaths has heard.

Giving evidence at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, the counter-terrorism officer DCI Dan Brown said Masood visited his mother, Janet Ajao, five days before the attack in a “goodbye visit”.

Brown said: “As he [Masood] was leaving the house on 17 March, he turned over his shoulder and said: ‘They’ll say I’m a terrorist, I’m not.’”

Because it was said as Masood was exiting through the door, Ajao did not react, Brown told the court.

Masood, 52, mowed down pedestrians in an SUV on Westminster Bridge on 22 March last year before stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death at the gates of the Palace of Westminster. Masood was then shot dead by police.

As well as his comments to his mother, in video conversations in the weeks leading up to the attack he told children from his third marriage to Rohey Hydara about interpretations of dreams he had been having. “He told them that he was going to die fighting for God,” said Brown.

CCTV footage played in court from the days leading up to the attack showed Masood relaxed, chatting and joking with staff at a hotel he stayed in and at a fish and chip shop.

As he planned the attack, Masood was simultaneously making unsuccessful attempts to obtain work in a Muslim country and his wife, mother and others believed he was going overseas for employment, the court heard.

Just before 2.30pm on 22 March, shortly before carrying out the attack, he sent a document titled “jihad” to a number of his contacts, including Hydara. The court heard the document contained no specifics about the attack but “a series of quoted passages from Islamic texts ... apparently selected to justify his attack”. Hydara tried to contact Masood but to no avail.

Born Adrian Russell Elms, Masood exhibited violent tendencies from an early age, the inquest heard. He was first arrested for shoplifting at 14 and his two stepbrothers said that while at school in Kent his behaviour was violent and disruptive.

His mother described him as “boisterous” when young, but as an older teenager he started to go out drinking and looking for fights. “She was worried he might kill someone through fighting,” said Brown.

He was arrested for criminal damage in 1983, aged 18, and as he got older a string of violent offences followed until 2003 when he completed his second jail term, although not all were prosecuted. “We know he was involved in violence and drug dealing,” said Brown.

He was arrested variously for possession of an offensive weapon, threatening behaviour and actual bodily harm.

He was first jailed, for two years, in 2000 after spitting at a man and injuring him in the face with a flick-knife. Even though Masood’s prison record said he had “no religion” at that time, his first wife, Jane Harvey, said it was while serving this sentence that he began reading the Qur’an.

Despite his growing interest in religion his violent behaviour continued after he was released in July 2001. There were allegations of separate attacks with a glass, flick-knife and cosh but the alleged victims refused to testify, leading police to suspect intimidation.

Masood was charged with a number of offences in 2003, including attempted murder, after he stabbed a man through the nose, tongue and mouth with such force that he broke the knife.

He pleaded self-defence and was found guilty only of possession of an offensive weapon, for which he was jailed for six months. His prison record this time stated his religion as Muslim, although Brown said there was no sign of extremism at this time.

In a statement read in court, an ex-girlfriend told police: “Adrian was vile. He was controlling, violent, obsessive, intelligent and narcissistic. I’m amazed he was religious. I honestly believe this is a front, an excuse to hurt people. He would love the attention and the fear he has caused.”

Masood’s other victims from the terror attack were Kurt Cochran, Leslie Rhodes, Aysha Frade and Andreea Cristea. When their inquests are complete an inquest into his death will commence with a jury.