British Taliban bombmaker serving life after Westminster knife plot attacked prison guard with frying pan yelling: ‘This is going to happen every day for the next 40 years’

• Khalid Ali, 31, struck the HMP Wakefield officer over the head at least ten times 
• Leeds Crown Court heard guard suffered a puncture wound in ‘savage’ attack  
• Ali has pleaded guilty to attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent 

A British Taliban bombmaker serving a life sentence after he plotted to kill MPs in Westminster stabbed a prison officer with a pen in a ‘savage’ attack, a court heard.     

Khalid Ali, 31, yelled ‘this is going to happen every day for the next 40 years’ after hitting the HMP Wakefield officer over the head at least ten times with a frying pan.

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday how the officer suffered a puncture wound as Ali thrust a Biro into his chest and shouted ‘I will kill you – Allahu Akbar.’

CCTV cameras captured the shocking moment Ali attacked the officer from behind as he walked past him on the maximum security jail’s landing in March last year.

After the attack Ali, who is serving a 40 year sentence, said: ‘Every day this is going to happen. You wanted it. You asked for it. You wanted the terrorist.’

Ali pleaded guilty to attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday.

Khalid Ali, who was pictured smirking as he was pinned up against a wall when he was arrested in April 2017, was jailed for 40 years in 2018

Pictured: Ali, now 31, when he was detained outside the Houses of Parliament in 2017

The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl QC, increased Ali’s minimum term to 44 years.

The judge said: ‘It seems to me that this was an extremely violent incident. You used full force in the blows. You targeted his head.

‘It is suggested this incident was over in a matter of seconds. I counted ten blows to or around the head but there were more off camera.

‘At the time you were shouting that you wanted to kill him. I am satisfied that you intended to cause as much damage as you could.

‘I do not find it to be a religiously or racially motivated attack. It was simply a reaction to those in authority.’

James Gelsthorpe, prosecuting, said the attack happened on the prison’s C wing on March 7, 2020.

Mr Gelsthorpe said: ‘The defendant waits for the complainant to pass him before striking him in a cowardly yet savage attack.’

The officer tried to protect himself and took out his baton as his colleagues went to help him.

The footage showed Ali holding a frying pan in one hand and a pen in the other.

Officers and other inmates who witnessed the incident were shocked by the severity of the attack. One prison employee said it was the worst attack he had seen in 28 years.

The FBI previously found his fingerprints from bombs seized from the Afghan battlefield

Police released pictures of some of the knives recovered from Ali in Whitehall in April 2017

Mr Gelsthorpe added: ‘This was a vicious, unprovoked assault on an unsuspecting member of staff, designed to inflict as much damage as possible in the shortest period of time.’

The injured officer realised he had been stabbed in the chest as he was receiving medical treatment.

He spent a week off work after the incident and continues to suffer from headaches.

Noel Casey, mitigating, said: ‘There can be no argument against the sustained nature of the attack. This is a man who is barely 30, facing a tariff of 40 years.

‘He has so long to serve that there really is no light at the end of the tunnel.’

Ali, a plumber, was handed three life sentences in July 2018 after plotting a knife attack on MPs and police outside the Houses of Parliament in London.

The Taliban-trained bombmaker had three knives when he was arrested by armed police in Parliament Square in April 2017 following surveillance by counter-terrorism police. 

Ali, who had moved from Saudi Arabia to Tottenham and then to Afghanistan during his lifetime, had been in the sights of police since he returned to the UK after spending five years making Taliban bombs used to maim and kill coalition troops.

In late 2016, the FBI matched his fingerprints to those on two caches of explosives recovered in 2012.

At his sentencing in 2018, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC handed Ali three life sentences.

He gave a minimum of 40 years for making IEDs for the Taliban in 2012 and 25 years for the plot to kill in Britain and attract ‘maximum publicity and instil terror’.

He said: ‘I am absolutely sure you were in Afghanistan. You were a valued member of a team making IEDs that were detonated in combat between January and July 2012.

‘I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a very considerable risk of your committing offences of violence in the future and cause death or serious injury as a result. I’m sure your plan was to attack and kill someone in central London.

‘Your preparations were complete and you very simply had to identify your precise target and his or her death was very likely to be caused by a knife attack. You would kill any police officer you could.’

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