Jack Merritt was 25 years old. He graduated in law and criminology and worked for Learning Together, a Cambridge University program for the rehabilitation of prisoners. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the course, a conference was held Friday at Fishmongers' Hall, at the north end of the London Bridge. It was here that the terrorist attack that killed two people in London began in the afternoon. Jack Merritt was stabbed to death by the terrorist Usman Khan, a 28-year-old Briton, confirmed on Sunday 1st December his university.
"The words can not express the sadness I feel in announcing that a course coordinator, Jack Merritt, was killed, as well as a former student whose name has not yet been revealed by the police," said Stephen Toope, the vice-chancellor of the English university, in a statement. A vigil was held in Cambridge on Saturday while the tributes to Jack Merritt multiplied on Twitter, describing him as a committed, intelligent and generous person.
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Dialogue between students and prisoners
A staff member of the institution is also among the three wounded in the knife attack led by Usman Khan, who himself attended the conference.
The attack also interfered with the campaign for early elections on December 12. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accused Labor today in the opposition of being at the origin of the law that allowed the early automatic release of the perpetrator of the knife attack in central London Friday.
Terrorism as a campaign theme
Usman Khan was sentenced to an indefinite term of imprisonment in 2012, with a minimum of eight years, revised to sixteen years in prison on appeal in 2013, for belonging to a group that wanted to commit terrorist attacks in the bomb in the UK. He was released on parole in 2018, after six years in prison, and wore an electronic bracelet during the attack.
"If you are convicted of a serious terrorist offense, there should be a minimum mandatory sentence of fourteen, and some should never go out"said the prime minister. In campaign, he judged that, "For all terrorist and extremist offenses, the sentence pronounced by the judge must actually be served (…) without exception ". Such measures would have avoided the bloody attack claimed Saturday by ISIS, said Johnson, saying: "Give me a majority and I will protect you from terrorism. "
Recovery
But "BoJo" immediately attracted criticism, accused of wanting to use the drama by advancing proposals that were not on the agenda of the Conservatives presented in late November. Jack Merritt's father reacted by pointing "The destruction of the probation service which is supposed to monitor prisoners after their release and rehabilitation services" and he blames the Conservatives.
The leader of Labor, the main opposition party, for his part felt that it was not necessary to " not necessarily " imprison those sentenced for terrorism without the possibility of early release. "The government can act to make such terrorist acts less likely", argued Jeremy Corbyn, for whom the focus needs to be "On police and social services".
Usman Khan was shot dead by police after being chased by civilians "Hero." Some were convicts also present at the conference at Fishmongers' Hall.
