POPPY Day bomber Emad Jamil Al-Swealmeen struck after his asylum bids were turned down. Here’s what we know about him. Who was Liverpool taxi bomber Emad Al Swealmeen? The Jordanian, 32, also had mental health problems and was once arrested with a knife. He blew himself up in a taxi at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Cabbie […]
POPPY Day bomber Emad Jamil Al-Swealmeen struck after his asylum bids were turned down.
Here’s what we know about him.
The Jordanian, 32, also had mental health problems and was once arrested with a knife.
He blew himself up in a taxi at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Cabbie David Perry, 43, survived by a “miracle”.
Emad Jamil Al-Swealmeen, who had no known connections with any terrorist groups, blew himself to bits with a home-made ball-bearing device.
He had taken a taxi from his bomb lair home to the local Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
CCTV footage captured the moment the device was detonated seconds after cabbie David Perry pulled up in front of the main entrance at 10.59 am.
Because of Al-Swealmeen’s severe injuries, it took police several hours to establish a potential identity – and he has yet to be formally identified.
It remained unclear when exactly the bomber entered the UK but it was understood he had been in a long-term dispute with the Home Office over his application for UK residential status.
And he had not been granted leave to remain here permanently.
According to friends, he earlier spent a large part of his life in Iraq, where his mother came from.
It was claimed that Al-Swealmeen had told friends he came from Syria — but The Sun understands he was a Jordanian national.
It was also claimed that motor-racing enthusiast Al-Swealmeen had changed his first name to Enzo in honour of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari — and to sound less Muslim in a bid to help his asylum application.
He was also said to have converted to Christianity at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral in 2017.
Al-Swealmeen spent eight months living with devoted Christians Malcolm and Elizabeth Hitchott at their home in the Aigburth district of Liverpool.
Former solider Mr Hitchott said: “He first came to the cathedral in August 2015 and wanted to convert to Christianity.
“He took an Alpha Course, which explains the Christian faith, and completed it in November of that year.
“That enabled him to come to an informed decision and he changed from Islam to Christianity and was confirmed as a Christian just before he came to live with us.
“He was destitute at that time and we took him in. The UK asylum people were never convinced he was Syrian and he was refused asylum in 2014.
“He had his case rejected because he has been sectioned due to some mental health incident where he was waving a knife at people from an overpass.”
Mr Hitchott explained: “He was going to put in a fresh asylum claim. Once he had done that, it was possible for him to be housed again by the Home Office and get £35 a week.
“He didn’t want to stay here any more. So he could get the accommodation, I gave him notice to leave. He never talked about Islam, terrorism, nothing.”
Mrs Hitchott said: “I bumped into him in a street, he was doing cake decoration at an educational class, a formal course somewhere, he was very enthusiastic. He showed me the designs he had done and what he was hoping to do in an upcoming exam. He was quite artistic.
“I gave him a sketchbook and pencils. He drew hills, flowers, everything around him.”
The couple said he loved motor racing and would often do go-karting at Brunswick in Liverpool.
The bomb factory where Al-Swealmeen constructed his deadly ball bearing device was yesterday revealed as a bedsit.
Police carried out a controlled explosion at the studio room in a Victorian property in Rutland Avenue in the city’s upmarket Sefton Park district.
Smoke billowed from the house following the 4pm blast, with families having already been evacuated.
