The mother of a Cambridge graduate killed in a London Bridge terror attack says she still remembers the last conversation she had with her daughter five years on from the horror stabbings.
Saskia Jones, 23, was knifed to death along with Jack Merritt, 25, by convicted terrorist Usman Khan during a prisoner rehabilitation event at Fishmongers’ Hall in London on November 29, 2019.
Khan, 28, attended the event, organised by Cambridge University‘s Learning Together programme, armed with two kitchen knives wearing a fake suicide vest and killed Mr Merritt and Ms Jones before he was shot dead by police.
On the five year anniversary of Ms Jones’s murder, her heartbroken mother, Michelle, has told how her life has been shattered since her death and said her daughter was in two minds about attending the event.
Michelle recalled the final conversation she had with her and said it was almost like ‘she knew’ something was going to happen, reported The Mirror.
Ms Jones had been stirring a pot of rice and talking to her mother about visiting a Christmas market with her friends before she lovingly told her: ‘I want you to come with us because everybody knows you are my best friend, because you are.’
Although that last chat has given Michelle some comfort she says her beloved daughter’s death has ‘left a permanent hole in my heart’.
Saskia Jones, 23, was knifed to death along with Jack Merritt, 25, by convicted terrorist Usman Khan during a prisoner rehabilitation event at Fishmongers’ Hall in London on November 29, 2019
Saskia’s heartbroken mother, Michelle (pictured attending her daughter’s memorial in 2019) says she still remembers the last conversation she had with her
‘It’s ever-present from when I rise to when I sleep,’ she said.
Ms Jones had been dead for nine hours before police told Michelle her daughter had been killed, something she says was ‘one of the hardest things to deal with’ as she asked: ‘Why did no one contact me?’
She had initially thought she wasn’t replying to her messages as she was too busy helping others following the attack.
But when two police officers arrived at her home she ‘froze’ as she realised her daughter was one of the stabbing victims.
Khan was lawfully killed by police who shot him 20 times after he stabbed the two Cambridge graduates.
Khan had been released on licence from prison 11 months earlier, after serving half of a 16-year sentence for being part of a terror cell plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange.
He had to wear an electronic tag and was supposed to be monitored by a multi-agency public protection arrangement (Mappa), made up of prison, probation and police officers.
Mappa knew that Khan had spent his entire jail term trying to radicalise, bully and forcibly convert other prisoners.
Ms Jones had been stirring a pot of rice and talking to her mother about visiting a Christmas market with her friends before she lovingly told her: ‘I want you to come with us because everybody knows you are my best friend, because you are’
Saskia Jones before she was stabbed to death. Convicted terrorist Usman Khan, 28, killed Cambridge University graduates Ms Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25
Ms Jones sits with her killer Usman Khan at the Fishmongers’ Hall event shortly before he stabbed her to death
An inquest jury last month found that failings by the police, probation service and MI5 contributed to the unlawful killings of the two graduates
Khan, 28, pictured, murdered the Cambridge graduates during a Learning Together event at Fishmongers’ Hall in London in November 2019
Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25, were both killed by the convicted terrorist
Khan was challenged outside the Fishmonger’s Hall by members of the public, who had a fire extinguisher and a narwhal tusk, before the arrival of police
But astonishingly, officials believed he had changed his ways and sanctioned his trip to London for the Learning Together event.
An inquest jury in 2021 found that failings by the police, probation service and MI5 contributed to the unlawful killings of the two graduates.
After the verdict, Ms Jones’s family criticised the event’s organisers Dr Ruth Armstrong and Dr Amy Ludlow for the ‘seemingly scant regard they had for the fundamental safety of their staff’.
The inquest heard that Learning Together often did not know details of prisoners’ offending backgrounds and staff did not receive training on handling dangerous inmates.