British security chiefs missed out on key intelligence weeks before the London Bridge attack by suspending their investigation into the plot's ringleader, the chief coroner ruled yesterday.
MI5 agents had Khuram Butt under surveillance for two years before he and two other fanatics killed eight people and injured 48 otherson June 3, 2017.
They knew Butt was a close associate of convicted hate preacher Anjem Choudary and had downloaded a vast amount of Islamic State videos and martyrdom clips.
But weeks before the atrocity, the probe was downgraded and Butt's risk level reduced to "maybe a threat".
The investigation into Butt, 27, was suspended for six weeks and only reopened four weeks before the atrocity. By then, Butt and his accomplices Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were in the advance stages of terror planning.
The lack of close surveillance by agents allowed them to use a van to plough through pedestrians on the bridge before going on a knife rampage. They were shot dead by police.
In a 46-page report into the attack, Judge Mark Lucraft QC found that the suspension of a priority investigation such as this one was a "matter of legitimate public concern".
The coroner, who presided over the six-week inquest into the victims' deaths, said: "It is possible that, but for that suspension, further useful intelligence about Butt would have been obtained, including more information about his links to the other attackers."
The coroner made 18 recommendations emergency services and other government agencies are urged to adopt. He also called on the Government to introduce laws making it easier for police to make arrests for possession of terrorist propaganda.
