UK Terror Suspects were Foster Children
“Anti-terror police evacuated homes in a residential street in Surrey on Saturday afternoon as they searched a property in connection with the probe into Friday’s bombing.
The evacuation came just hours after Kent Police detained an 18-year-old man at the port of Dover, on suspicion of terror offences.
The house, in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, is registered to foster care couple Penelope and Ronald Jones who have been described by friends and neighbours as a “beautiful couple”.
Mr and Mrs Jones, 88 and 71, were honoured by the Queen in 2009 for their services to children and families.
Nicola Ryder, who lives opposite the couple, said they fostered up to seven young people at a time between the ages of 10 and 18.
And long-time family friend Serena Barber, 45, said that the Joneses had fostered dozens of children.
She told Press Association: “Penny’s a wonderful foster mother. She takes everyone, she doesn’t turn anyone away.”
The couple featured in an interview with Elmbridge CAN, a community group which aims “to build a culture of welcome to refugees” and help settle them in the local community.
The organisation states that Mr and Mrs Jones have been foster parents for almost 40 years and had taken in 268 children – the last eight of which were refugees. It is not clear when the interview was published.
n the interview Mrs Jones said fostering “had its ups and downs”, adding: “They’re all children, it doesn’t matter if they’re sky blue or with pink dots on them – they just need to be loved.”
On the street where the property is, residents were rushed from their homes by armed police not allowed back into their homes for hours.
Mother-of-three Mojgan Jamali, among those forced to flee, told the Press Association: “I was in my house with my children and there was a knock at the door from the police.
“They told me to leave. They said: ‘You have one minute to get out of the house and get away.’
“I just got out, I got my three children and we left the house and the street.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu police had been working to ensure the address was “safe” and “locate any other potential suspects.”
He added his team were “quickly and thoroughly searching that address” and “working to ensure it is safe”
Thirty people were injured when the improvised device partially exploded on a District Line train at Parsons Green station during the Friday morning rush hour.
Three victims are still being treated at Chelsea and Westminster hospital, NHS England said.”
Earlier the Home Secretary said it was “much too early to say” whether the bomber was part of the current security picture, following comments from US President Donald Trump that the culprit was known to Scotland Yard.
The suspect was arrested at around 7.50am, in the port which is the busiest ferry hub in Europe and serves as a commercial gateway to the French coast, including Calais and Dunkirk.
Mr Basu said police were keeping an “open mind” as to whether the Tube bomber was acting alone or as part of a wider network.
Police have since identified 121 witnesses, of whom 100 have been spoken to, he said.
yewitness Daniel Vaselicu described the moment the suspect was arrested by police shortly after 7.30am on Saturday,
Mr Vaselicu, 31, had been sitting with a friend in the waiting area at the ferry hub when he saw the man being approached by officers.
The departure area was empty apart from the individual, who was said to be young and light-skinned, but not English, the Romanian baker said.
He appeared calm as the officers interrogated him for 10 minutes, leading Mr Vaselicu to believe he was simply homeless.
Moments later, after Mr Vaselicu had left for a coffee and a cigarette, the officers arrested the 18-year-old, who police believe planted the bomb on a packed District Line train on Friday.
He told the Press Association: “We were in the seating area at the terminal, the police were interrogating this guy for around 10 minutes.
“It was around 7.30am, he was young, around 25 or under. He was white, not Arabic, but he wasn’t English – there was only one person there.
“Then we went to the town centre, I wanted to smoke a cigarette and have some coffee, my opinion was that he was a homeless guy and that’s why they were interrogating him.
“He was looking normal, not fighting or worried, concerned.”
[Standard 9/16/17 by Chloe Chaplain]
“Police have arrested a second refugee foster child who had been living with the same family as part of the terror investigation into the Parsons Green bombing.
Yahyah Farroukh, 21, was arrested outside the chicken shop where he worked in Hounslow on Saturday night just hours after police caught the 18-year-old suspected of planting the Tube bomb at the Port of Dover, witnesses say.
After his arrest police cordoned off his home just yards from Heathrow Airport in Stanwell, Surrey. The Syrian refugee had previously lived at the home of Ron and Penny Jones, who had been fostering the 18-year-old before his arrest.
Officers also searched Aladdins Fried Chicken in Hounslow.
According to his Facebook page Mr Farroukh had moved to the UK from Damascus.
Friends of the Joneses said the elderly couple, who had taken in hundreds of children since the 1970s, had only recently returned to fostering after being moved by the plight of youngsters caught up in the refugee crisis.
Family friend, Jim Adaway, 37, said the couple had wanted to help resettle children from overseas, particularly war zones, but had been struggling to cope with one of the children in their care.
Mr and Mrs Jones, who were appointed MBEs for their fostering work in 2009, described how they felt compelled to help others and had kept in touch with many of the young people who had shared their home.
Mrs Jones said the children she took in needed to be loved and made to feel special.
She said: “We open our hearts to all the children. Anybody that comes to us we will do whatever we can do to help them with whatever they need.”
She added: “There must have been hundreds of children. I try to stay in touch with them. Some have been adopted. I send them birthday cards – it’s a very extended family.”
The couple, who had six children between them, were being looked after by relatives as police continued to scour their home for clues.
Neighbours of the Stanwell property which was cordoned of by police said that Mr Farroukh had moved into the property more than a year ago .
One said: “There would be men going in his house. There’s always cars coming and going. They all talk Arabic.
“Some of them wear caps on their heads and the long (traditional) dress. He didn’t dress in traditional dress.
“When he walks around he’s always on his mobile. He speaks Arabic.
“Sometimes I’ve seen him with a black thing around his head.”
Pat Hodge, who works in a warehouse, said: “I thought he was a student. He would always wave to us, the others wouldn’t.
“They would set out prayer mats in the garden. They always had something, like gadgets, in their hand but there was no TV, no furniture in the house.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Three addresses are now being searched; two searches are continuing at addresses in Surrey and a further search is taking place in Hounslow in connection with the ongoing investigation into the Parsons Green incident.””
Speaking about the second arrest, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “A second man has been arrested by detectives from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command investigating the terrorist attack at Parsons Green on Friday, 15 September.
“The 21-year-old man was arrested in Hounslow at around 23:50hrs on Saturday, 16 September.
“He was arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act and taken to a south London police station where he remains in custody.”
Hours after the second arrest, Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, said the UK’s threat level had been lowered from critical to severe.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said police had made “good progress” in the investigation as she announced the country had been removed from the highest terror alert.
Ms Rudd said: “Following the attack in Parsons Green last Friday the police have made good progress with what is an ongoing operation.
“The joint terrorist analysis centre, which reviews the threat level that the UK is under, has decided to lower that level from critical to severe.
“Severe still means that an attack is highly likely so I would urge everybody to continue to be vigilant but not alarmed.”
he threat level had been put up to its highest level on Friday night after the homemade bomb partially detonated on a District Line train, injuring at least 29 people.
The train, which was bound for Edgware Road, was just pulling into the station in south-west London in rush-hour on Friday morning when the device detonated in the rear carriage, sending passengers fleeing to safety.
Witnesses described scenes of terror and panic after the blast sent a “fireball” and a “wall of flame” through the train.
Parsons Green station was reopened in the early hours of Saturday.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, speaking after a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee, said there was no doubt the bomb was a “serious IED”. “It was good fortune that it did so little damage”, she said.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said on Saturday that police were “chasing down suspects”, indicating that a potential network of plotters could have been involved.
The force said it has spoken to 45 witnesses and 77 images and videos have been sent to detectives by members of the public.
A key plank of the investigation has focused on CCTV, with officers combing through footage to establish who planted the device, and when and where it was placed on the train.
Following the attack, troops were dispatched to key sites across the country to free up armed police officers after the country’s terror threat level was raised to its highest point.
The threat level remains at critical, which means a further attack is feared to be imminent.
In a move to reassure Londoners, the Met Commissioner Cressida Dick also joined uniformed officers on patrol, travelling by tube to Waterloo Station and walking along the South Bank.
The attack – the fifth terrorist attack on the UK in just six months – caused a diplomatic row between Washington and London.”
Parsons Green bombing: Police arrest second refugee foster child
[Telegraph 9/17/17 by Rozina Sabur, Martin Evans,Hayley Dixon]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Recent Comments