Victim of terrorist Ahmed Alid thought UK was 'a safe place' until Hartlepool attack

The victim of a terrorist attack in Hartlepool has said "all thoughts and feelings I had of being in a safe country have gone".

Javed Nouri was stabbed repeatedly by Ahmed Alid, who was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 45 years, for an attack he carried out in Hartlepool in October 2023.

During sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb read a victim impact statement from Mr Nouri, who had been living with Alid at the time, in a property housing asylum seekers.

It read, "I would expect to be arrested and killed in my home country for converting to Christianity but I did not expect to be attacked in my sleep here."

Jurors at Teesside Crown Court were told that Alid, who was born in Morocco and moved around Europe for years, was seeking “revenge” for the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Alid admitted stabbing two men in the early hours of 15 October last year, eight days after Hamas launched their attacks on Israel.

In a police interview following his arrest, he told police he would have killed “thousands” if he had a machine gun.

Following the incident, outrage across the town brewed.

"Enough is enough"

Tensions were expressed by Hartlepool's MP at Prime Minister's questions, in a remarkable statement.

Mrs Mortimer said people were “afraid and angry” and stressed that “sympathy is not enough”.

A Conservative MP since 2021, she told the House of Commons: "Every week my office is besieged by asylum seekers, my staff are intimidated by young men.

"The fact is most of them are illegal migrants who should be expelled."

She called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to take action to deliver enforcement and "ensure that people who have no right to be here are expelled".

"Enough is enough," she said. "I want these people out of Hartlepool now."

Members of the public and users on social media and beyond firmly agreed with their MP.

But the remarks of Mrs Mortimer's statement regarding asylum seekers as "these people" were also met with condemnation by charities, church groups, councillors and other civic figures, who instead, called for the community to come together.

"We aren't that dissimilar from you"

Amjid Khazir lives in the region, but has worked around the world on projects to tackle radicalisation.

Mr Khazir's greatest fear is that the actions of one man could prompt harmful division and leave a dangerous legacy for people who arrive here desperate for help.

He told ITV Tyne Tees: "I remember a young girl speaking to me one afternoon when Isis went on their murderous rampage and I think she lost something like 70% of her entire family.

"She spoke of how she'd come and settled in this country, and began to go to college and was really looking forward to life, but she wears a hijab, and for some, that made her not part of the community.

"She'd speak about suffering racism here. And that's really sad to think that someone who's escaped some of the worst crimes humanity has ever seen, has left her family, a young girl, now living here, in the North East, and is, again, the victim of hate and racism."

"This is a terrible situation that happened here, and our thoughts go out to the victims' family. But we've had a substantial increase in racism in the North East, recorded, from post-Brexit, on the back of Covid.

"My message for the wider community would be that communities who are coming here to live and work and survive alongside, aren't that dissimilar from you.

"We can't allow instances like this to further divide us, to polarise us, and to create that community tension where situations like this might arise again."

"It could be spontaneous"

Dr Tarela Ike, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Policing at Teesside University said the predicability of an attack from a lone offender and extremist like Ahmed Alid could be difficult to detect.

Dr Ike told ITV Tyne Tees, "They are solitary in nature, so it makes it difficult for you to counter, because they don't speak to people about it. It could be spontaneous.

"Meaning, you wouldn't be aware of when they were going to attack. There comes a point if you can no longer curtail the grievances they have, they may lash out. Some may resort to stabbings or mass shootings".

“Nothing can justify the actions of the defendant that day"

Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley is Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East who led the investigation, supported by Cleveland Police.

He said: “In this case, it was appropriate that the decision to declare this horrific incident as an act of terrorism was made once all the evidence had been heard by the court.

“The defendant had expressed, during the time of his arrest and whilst in custody, that his actions were inspired by the Israel-Hamas conflict. He appeared to have developed a fixation with the events there.

“International conflicts can create a mix of outrage, grief and grievance which has the potential to galvanise those with an extremist or potentially extremist mind-set to take action. Sadly, as we have seen in this case, it can have devastating consequences.

In sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Ahmed Alid he had “hoped to frighten the people of Britain and undermine the freedoms they enjoy” and to “influence Britain's leaders and its people".

The judge added that the attack on Alid’s housemate Javed Nouri was an attempt "to punish him for converting to Christianity”.

In closing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb declared: "Those who genuinely seek refuge in this country will embrace the values we hold dear.

"These values include respect for the dignity of each person as an individual, with freedom to choose their political opinion, without intimidation, and whether to observe a particular faith, without fear or oppression.

"These moral and ethical principles are based on the Judaeo-Christian foundation of our social structures. Not all ideas are of equal quality or integrity, but religious and political freedom is something that generations have fought for."

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