Anti-terror police investigating London jihadi search 'child killer's former home'

 
Police said the boy was in a critical condition after the incident

Counter terror police were today searching the suspected former home of the Briton who is believed to have staged a suicide bomb attack on a prison in Syria.

Officers are examining an end-of-terrace house in Martyrs Avenue, Crawley after reports that the UK jihadi, who used the name Abu Suleiman al-Britani, carried out the deadly bombing.

The bomber’s real identity emerged today as Abdul Waheed Majid, 41.

Bizarrely, the two-storey house was reported to be the former home of child killer Roy Whiting, a paedophile who kidnapped and killed seven-year-old school girl Sarah Payne in July 2000.

The Briton is said to have driven a lorry packed with explosives into the gates of a jail in Aleppo last week allowing hundreds of fellow fighters to escape.

Majid was killed instantly in the blast and UK investigators say it may be impossible to formally identify him.

His truck was fitted with makeshift armour plating similar to vehicles which featured in the 1979 Mel Gibson movie Mad Max.

Draped over the V-shaped welded ironwork on the front was the black flag of Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist faction aligned to al-Qaeda and banned in Britain.

Last Friday British jihadists hailed the sacrifice of one of their number.

Majid is thought to be the first Briton to stage a suicide attack in Syria, where increasing numbers of UK-born extremists have gone to fight.

Counter-terrorism officials are increasingly concerned about the trend of young Britons travelling to Syria - and the potential that they could return and stage attacks on UK soil.

Officials are said to be talking to relatives of Majid in the Crawley area today.

A police officer stood guard outside the two-storey, end-of-terrace property in a residential part of Langley Green.

Neighbour Nita Bateman said Roy Whiting, who murdered eight-year-old schoolgirl Sarah Payne in 2000 in West Sussex, used to live at the house.

Ms Bateman, 55, expressed shock at the revelations that the house could have been used by a suicide bomber, describing him as a "pleasant chap" in his 40s.

She said: "When I became very ill, he was always willing to help, and he would do my neighbour's hedges.”

Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said : "He was just a quiet guy. Whenever I saw him, he was either working on his car or doing other stuff.

"Sometimes I would see him drive off in a maintenance lorry. Whenever I saw him, I would nod my head and say hello.”

Officers from the South East Counter Terrorism Unit are leading the inquiry to identify the suicide bomber.

A spokeswoman confirmed today that the search of the Crawley address was connected to the investigation.

She said : “There have been no arrests and inquiries are continuing.”

Detectives have been studying social media reports on Facebook and Twitter in connection with the bombing in an effort to identify the Briton.

Supporters in Britain have said to have begun a financial collection for the family of the suicide bomber, who some reports have suggested was married with three children.

A number of people from the Crawley area are said to have travelled to Syria.

A leader of Crawley's Muslim community said that one or two people who travelled to Syria from the town have not yet returned home.

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