Jihadi jailed for 10 years for helping 21/7 Tube bombers given top council job after bosses failed to uncover her criminal past
Ex-model Mulumebet Girma was even put on the cover of a council magazine
A JIHADI jailed for helping the 21/7 Tube bombers got a top council job — with potential access to details of terror suspects being watched by police.
Mulumebet Girma rose through housing department ranks after London’s Southwark Council failed to uncover her criminal past, despite her being in one of the UK’s highest-profile terror trials.
The Ethiopian ex-model was even put on the cover of a council magazine to promote its apprenticeship scheme. Girma, 33, has now been sacked.
Girma got a job with Southwark Council as a trainee customer services assistant in 2013 — shortly after she was released early from a 10-year jail term.
She did not declare her criminal past and the council failed to uncover it despite her having a key role in one of Britain’s highest profile terror trials.
A simple Google search would have revealed ex-model Girma had been convicted under the Terrorism Act for assisting her brother-in-law Hussein Osman, who tried to blow up a packed commuter train on 21 July 2005.
There is even a Wikipedia page detailing her involvement, after Osman failed to blow up a train in Shepherd's Bush when his rucksack bomb only partially exploded.
He was taken by Girma's sister and brother to her home in Brighton, where the student and model tended burns to his legs.
Girma hid Osman - the father of her three nieces and nephews - in her home, and lied to the police about his whereabouts.
She then helped him to a safe house, and he later escaped to London and then Rome.
In June 2008 Girma and her siblings were found guilty of assisting an offender and failing to disclose information on the plot.
She and her brother Esayas were both jailed for ten years, while her sister Yeshi - Osman's wife - was handed a 15-year-sentence.
Judge Paul Worsley told the siblings the sentences he was able to pass by law were "woefully inadequate to reflect the enormity" of the case.
He said the sisters had told the court a "tissue of lies".
He added: "In my judgment it is almost impossible to imagine more serious offending.
"I have no doubt that each of you were prepared to aid a ruthless fanatic and that you must have harboured hope that the bombers would have been successful in their mission to seek to damage our society where people can still go about their daily business fairly and with confidence.
"This court will reflect society's condemnation of what you did by imposing sentences which punish, deter others, and ensure the public are protected."
Upon her release, Girma rose through the ranks to become a systems and performance analyst in the housing team.
She appeared on the cover of a council magazine to show off the success of its apprenticeship scheme.
A source said: “How did she manage to get this job without any checks? All it would take was a Google of her name to see her past.
“The database she had control over contains clients who are deemed ‘vulnerable.’ This is for a whole range of reasons — but one is them being on a watch list, or worries they could be at risk of links to terrorism…”
Southwark Tory councillor Michael Mitchell said: “This is a truly shocking blunder. Allowing someone with that background to work with potentially vulnerable clients is an entirely avoidable risk. It’s a huge error.”
She was one of 40 apprentices in 2013 and eventually got a permanent job at the council's Peckham office.
Southwark Council yesterday said Girma had been sacked and an investigation launched — but denied she had direct access to watch list data.
Chief executive Eleanor Kelly said: “As soon as her background came to light we terminated her employment. She did not disclose her full offence.
“During her employment this individual never had access to police watch list data.
“We have fully reviewed her activity while she was employed at the council, including her computer usage, and no wrongdoing was uncovered.”
The July 21 bombers attempted to blow up Tube trains and a bus two weeks after terrorists killed 52 passengers in the July 7 attacks.
A huge death toll was averted because the four bombers failed to mix their devices’ chemicals properly.
