Hartlepool MP: Terrorist killer 'should not have been in town'

Both the town’s MP and the Shadow Home Secretary have criticised the role of the Home Office in dealing with Ahmed Ali Alid’s quest for asylum in the UK, after he illegally entered the country three years earlier, having failed to be granted asylum in Germany.

The 45-year-old Moroccan stabbed Terence Carney to death in the town centre, on October 15.

It was said to be in “revenge” for Israel declaring war on Hamas, on October 8.

That, in turn, was in response to the attacks and hostage-taking by Hamas in raids in southern Israel, the previous day.

Alid initially attempted to murder his housemate, a Christian convert, as he slept in Home Office-approved accommodation for asylum seekers, while shouting: “Allahu Akbar”, “God is Great”.

He then fled into the street, still armed with a knife, which he used to kill 70-year-old Mr Carney to death in a measured, but deliberate attack, inflicting six stab wounds, before he walked off, leaving the victim for dead.

Alid was jailed for life with a minimum term of 45 years, at Teesside Crown Court, on Friday (May 17).

Speaking after the sentencing hearing, Ms Mortimer, the Conservative MP for Hartlepool, described Alid as, “a failed asylum seeker”, who, “should never have been” in the town.

She said: “The murder of Terrance Carney is a tragic case, and my thoughts remain with the victim and the victim’s family.

“I hope that today’s sentencing has brought them some closure.

“Mr Carney was a victim of a failed asylum seeker who should never have been here in Hartlepool in the first place.

“Murderer Ahmed Alid had been turned down asylum in Germany and had been in the asylum system for years travelling around Europe.

“He will now spend the rest of his life inside our prison system.

“I continue to pressure the Government to enforce the removal of people whose asylum claims have been turned down and to speed up the vetting process, so that these people who travel across Europe making multiple asylum claims in multiple countries are under no circumstances granted stay in the UK.

“In the last year 26,000 people were returned to their home countries and the Government continues to increase the overall capacity for removals in detention centres and the number of caseworkers to process these removals.

“The Rwanda scheme has been extended to include failed asylum seekers.

“These important actions will come into place with urgency, to ensure that no community needs to suffer like ours has again.”

Yvette Cooper, a Labour MP in West Yorkshire and the Shadow Home Secretary, called for, “a major overhaul of the UK’s asylum and immigration system”.

She said it had, “shockingly” taken three years to process Alid’s claim.

Ms Cooper said: “These were the most appalling terror attacks and all our thoughts are with the victims, their families and the local community.

“Ahmed Alid is responsible for these terrible crimes, but we cannot ignore the alarming catalogue of failures in the way the Home Office dealt with his case.”

Ms Cooper was critical that Alid was not challenged by Border Force staff when he entered the UK unlawfully in 2020, and that his case was not fast-tracked.

“No attempt was ever made to return him to his home country”, she said, and this was despite his history of failed asylum applications in other European countries.

“This deeply troubling case shows we need a major overhaul of the UK’s asylum and immigration system, with a new Border Security Command to tighten security checks, an end the shameful delays in the asylum process by making speedy decisions where people have already had claims refused elsewhere.”

She said there should also be a new Returns and Enforcement Unit, “with additional staff to swiftly remove people with no right to be here.”

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'Islamic extremist' jailed for life for Hartlepool murder

Asylum seeker who murdered pensioner ‘in revenge for Gaza’ is terrorist – judge

Ahmed Alid, 45, on trial accused of Hartlepool murder

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In passing sentence on Alid, the judge at Teesside Crown Court, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said in her view he was seeking “revenge” on Israel in by murdering Mr Carney.

She told Alid he, “hoped to frighten the people of Britain and to undermine the freedoms they enjoy”, and he also sought to, “intimidate and influence the British Government.”

The judge described his earlier attack on his sleeping housemate as, “an attempt to punish him for converting to Christianity.”