The man arrested over the Golders Green terror attack has been named as Essa Suleiman, a Somali-born British citizen with a documented history of extreme violence against police, who had previously been jailed for nine years for stabbing an officer repeatedly in the head, face and leg — and also wounding the policeman’s dog.
Suleiman, 45, was arrested on Wednesday after two Jewish men were stabbed near a synagogue on Highfield Avenue in north London in an attack that has been formally declared a terror incident motivated by antisemitism. He had at one stage been living in Camberwell, south-east London.
His previous conviction dates back to January 2008, when Suleiman — then 27 — attacked PC Neil Sampson in Swindon, Wiltshire, after the officer responded to reports of a knife incident at a nearby property. Sampson was stabbed multiple times in the head, face and leg with what was believed to be a bread knife, requiring five months off work to recover. His police dog Anya was struck in the chest during the same attack. Reports indicated a second officer was also injured. Suleiman was convicted of grievous bodily harm at Swindon Crown Court and sentenced to nine years, with a judge ruling that half the term had to be served in custody.
Suleiman was also referred to the Government’s Prevent counter-extremism deradicalisation programme in 2020, but his case was closed later that year — a detail that will inevitably invite scrutiny given subsequent events.
Speaking at the scene on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the suspect as having “a history of serious violence and mental health issues.” His comments now appear to have been a significant understatement of the record that has since emerged. The case raises urgent questions about how a man with such an extensive and violent criminal history, who had been on Prevent’s radar, came to be free and able to carry out an attack on a busy north London street.
