EVIL LURKING
Clapham ‘attacker’ Abdul Ezedi snuck into Britain in lorry & had asylum claim rejected TWICE before chemical horror
The suspect has been on the run for more than 24 hours after a mum and two kids were attacked
A FUGITIVE being hunted over a horror chemical attack on a mum and two kids snuck into Britain in a lorry and had two asylum claims rejected.
Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, 35, from Newcastle, is still at large after 12 people were injured in the horror attack in at 7.25pm yesterday - and cops are urging people not to approach him.
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The victims include a mum who wrestled with the chemical maniac who doused her and her young kids with a corrosive liquid, then tried to run her over.
Members of the public and cops were also burned as they rushed to the family’s aid.
Witnesses have told how after the horrific attack the woman staggered blindly along the street wailing: “I can’t see. I can’t see.”
The vulnerable victim — believed to have been living in hiding from Afghan refugee Abdul Ezedi — was targeted on Wednesday evening.
MORE ON CLAPHAM ATTACK
Now it has been revealed that Ezedi arrived in the UK in a lorry and failed to claim asylum.
However, he then converted to Christianity and was accepted on his third attempt with a priest as a character witness.
Ezedi pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual assault and one of exposure before he was granted asylum, the Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed.
He was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on January 9, 2018, to a nine-week jail term suspended for two years for the sexual assault.
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For the exposure he was given 36 weeks' imprisonment to be served consecutively, which was also suspended for two years.
Just before 7.30pm on Wednesday a row broke out which spilled into a residential street near Clapham Common, South West London.
Ezedi is believed to have tracked his victim down to the two-star Clapham South Belvedere Hotel, where she was staying with her daughters aged eight and three in a local council-provided room.
Everything we know...
- Chief suspect Abdul Ezedi is a convicted sex offender and former asylum seeker
- Cops have released a new photo, showing him with a melted face an hour after the attack
- Video shows a figure fleeing through the darkness after a chemical attack
- The 31-year-old woman and her daughters, aged 3 and 8, all remain in hospital
- The family is feared to have been deliberately targeted in the horror
The suspect is thought to have grabbed the youngest child and put her in the back of a white car.
As the mum and older daughter tried to intervene, he then threw an alkaline substance, believed to be oven cleaner, at them.
Shocking CCTV footage shows the man running around the car and slamming shut a rear door before getting into the driver’s seat.
The woman and her daughter can be seen reaching out for each other with one hand while clutching their eyes with the other. At one point the suspect drives at the woman who throws her arms into the air.
He then jumped out the car and grabbed the three-year-old before throwing her down on the ground twice “like a rag doll.”
The suspect got back into the motor but crashed into a parked car and fled the scene, pursued by members of the public.
Others who raced to help the family suffered burns themselves.
Mum-of-three Shannon Christie, who lives in a block of flats at the end of the road, was scorched by the corrosive liquid as she went to the rescue of the youngest child.
Bus driver Shannon, 35, said: “I heard the commotion and ran out.
“I saw a little girl being thrown to the floor. At that point, I ran in and grabbed her off the floor.
“I heard her mum shouting ‘I can’t see, I can’t see’. So I called my partner to get some water. Staff at the hospital came round and were dousing her with water. At that point my skin started to tingle.
“Me and the little girl went into the block to wash our eyes and faces with water.”
'HORRENDOUS'
Shannon, right, went on: “I think what happened is she got it on her jacket when she fell on the floor and then it transferred to me. I went to hospital because my lips kept burning but they couldn’t identify what the substance was.”
She added: “The youngest girl was three years old. I tried to talk to her and ask what her name was but she just kept crying.
“The mum was walking along the street but she couldn’t see anything.
“Staff from the hotel came out to help as well.”
Shannon told how her partner chased after the attacker, dressed in black, but was wearing slippers and lost him. She added: “I think it was a domestic incident.”
Another witness said: “There was a little baby girl banging on the door on the man’s side, the lady was crying, screaming ‘my eyes, my eyes, police’. He opened the door, took out the baby and banged her against the ground twice, I’m talking hard, bang.”
Another female witness added: “It was horrendous. I heard people screaming. I saw a car and thought there had been an accident.
“I saw him come out of the driver’s side and take out a child from the back of the car. He extended his arms and threw her like a rag doll to the ground. Then he did it again. I thought she was dead. She didn’t make any noise.
“I heard the baby say ‘I want my mum, I want my mum’. I was so relieved she was alive. I saw a silver canister that may have been what the corrosive substance was in.”
One man said of the woman: “She was screaming: ‘My eyes! My eyes!’. I then ran into my house, grabbed a water bottle and threw water on her eyes. Her lips were black. Her skin looked burnt.”
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Staff at the hotel doused the mother and her children with water before medics and the fire brigade arrived. Another witness told how the woman suffered burns to her face which left her lips black. They said: “She was screaming, ‘my eyes’. Her skin looked burnt.”
A 26-year-old man staying at the budget hotel described the woman as speaking English fluently and said she was praying as she was treated for burns in a toilet.
He said: “The kids were praying. The older kid was saying ‘thank you’ to people.
“The mother was calming her daughters, she looked really bad, the mother. She was crying, a Romanian woman was trying to clean her face.”
Meanwhile, locals surveyed the scene, where a small pair of child’s shoes lay abandoned on the ground.
One man said: “I saw acid on the ground and two baby shoes on the floor. The car was in the middle of the road with the doors open.”
The mum and her daughters were last night being treated at a hospital trauma centre. Four members of the public also suffered burns.
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Three women — two in their 30s and one in her 50s — who “bravely came to the aid of the family” have been discharged from hospital.
A fourth person refused help. Five cops were also treated.
Police were last night trying to piece together the chain of events.
And they warned people not to approach dangerous Ezedi.
He had been living in Newcastle for several years but is thought to have travelled to London recently. Witnesses said Ezedi spent his days “hanging around the streets” of Newcastle near the hostel where he was living last summer.
And garage owner Bilal Khan, 34, told how he pestered him to drop the price of a car he wanted to buy.
Mr Khan said: “He was persistent and annoying in the way he tried to hussle the price down. I had a black automatic Ford Fiesta for sale for £5,000 and he kept coming in and trying to buy it for £4,000.
“He’s a small, skinny guy, there’s nothing threatening about him but I didn’t like the way he went about things When I said no to him he got a friend involved and tried to get me to knock the price down. I don’t like dealing with people from the hostel, there’s a lot of trouble and drug taking in there so I didn’t really want to get involved.
“It’s horrible to think that he’s been involved in this acid attack, I really feel for the kids involved.
Met chief slams 'ghastly' attack
MET Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said an urgent manhunt has been launched for the attacker.
Speaking on BBC News, Sir Mark said: "It's understandable that it's frightening.
"Fortunately, attacks using acid and chemicals are exceedingly rare.
"We did have a spate of them two or three years ago, you might remember.
"It's not something we've seen much of at all recently, I'm pleased to say.
"This is a ghastly attack, and the first thing to say is we have a live manhunt.
"The suspected offender we believe was known to the victims.
"We have a big team of officers, including the local officers who dealt with it assisted by colleagues.
"We are hunting for him as we speak."
“As I could see he spent his days on his own hanging around the street near the hostel.”
Locals in King’s Cross, North London, said Ezedi stayed there recently and attended a job centre.
Met Police Superintendent Gabriel Cameron said: “We’re working to establish the circumstances.
“A manhunt to trace Ezedi is under way. We are working with partner agencies and forces including the British Transport Police to locate and arrest him. If you see Ezedi, call 999 immediately. He should not be approached.”
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Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “Last night’s attack on a mother and her two children in Clapham was appalling.
“My thoughts are with them and the brave members of the public and police who intervened. I ask the public to support the Metropolitan Police’s appeal and to come forward if they have any information.”
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