In wake of a tragic attack at a Manchester synagogue last October that claimed the lives of two congregants, the city’s police chief has publicly expressed profound regret for failing to thwart the crime. The official acknowledged a significant “missed opportunity” to investigate the perpetrator beforehand.
Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson of Greater Manchester Police offered his apology as one of Jihad Al-Shamie’s associates was sentenced to life imprisonment. The associate was convicted of plotting with Al-Shamie to assault Israeli soldiers at a UK military training facility two months prior to the synagogue attack.
Newly uncovered information reveals that police seized two mobile phones from Al-Shamie months before he crashed his vehicle into Heaton Park Synagogue in October 2025.
These devices were confiscated after Al-Shamie was detained on February 13, 2025, on a charge of breaching a non-molestation order, and then again on September 21 for an alleged rape incident.
Unfortunately, crucial messages, in which Al-Shamie spoke of preparing for conflict and expressed a desire to leave this world, were not scrutinized until after the devastating attack occurred.
Examination of his phones also revealed that, two months before the attack, Mohammad Bashir, 31, a delivery driver who lived with his parents, had driven the terrorist on a reconnaissance mission to the UK Defence Academy at Shrivenham in Oxfordshire.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an inquiry and the issue is also expected to be examined by the inquest into the attack.
As ‘committed jihadist’ Bashir was today jailed for life for plotting to attack the military base, Sir Stephen apologised to the families of Melvin Cravitz, 66, who was stabbed to death by Al-Shamie, and Adrian Daulby, 53, who was tragically struck by a stray bullet when officers gunned down the terrorist, who was wearing a fake suicide belt.
CCTV footage from a Manchester mosque on August 9, 2025 captured ‘committed jihadist’ Mohammad Bashir, 31, (left) plotting with synagogue terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie (right) to attack a British military base
Mohammad Asim Bashir, 31, a delivery driver from Cheetham Hill, Manchester, was today jailed for life for preparing a terrorist attack by driving Heaton Park Synagogue attacker Jihad al-Shamie to carry out hostile reconnaissance on another potential target two months earlier
Mohammad Asim Bashir (pictured), 31, drove al-Shamie’s car on a ten¿hour round trip from Manchester, despite being uninsured, and the pair spent 13 minutes in the area of the Defence Academy in Oxfordshire before returning
‘In conducting an internal review, it became apparent that Greater Manchester Police had seized Al-Shamie’s mobile devices, at the point of each arrest,’ he said.
‘The significance of the data contents of these devices was substantial in respect of evidencing an extremist mindset.
‘Regrettably, I can confirm that the significance of the information stored on Al-Shamie’s devices was not realised as they had not been examined before the attack took place on October 2, 2025.
‘It is for the IOPC and the Coronial Inquests to determine the impact of not reviewing the contents of the devices.
‘There can however, be little doubt that the information contained within these devices would have inspired further investigative action.
‘It is clear that our not having reviewed the data available to us prior to the attack constitutes a missed opportunity.
‘I am disappointed at the prospect of adding to the distress of all of those affected by the terrible events last October.
Synagogue attacker Jihad Al–Shamie (pictured) died in the attack in Heaton Park on October 2, 2025
Court artist sketch of Mohammad Bashir appearing at the Old Bailey in London
‘For this, I am deeply sorry.’
Al-Shamie, from Prestwich, Greater Manchester, drove his black Kia Picanto into a security guard outside the synagogue on October 2, 2025 before stabbing to death Mr Cravitz as worshippers barricaded themselves inside.
Tragically a stray bullet killed Mr Daulby, who was among those preventing the attacker from entering the building.
Al-Shamie and Bashir previously plotted to attack the UK Defence Academy in order to target soldiers from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) who they believed were being trained there, Manchester Crown Court heard yesterday.
It provides defence and security education to the British Armed Forces, UK government, industry and overseas personnel and routinely has up to 4,000 staff, contractors, students and visitors on site at any given time, the court was told.
Bashir drove Shamie’s car on a ten-hour round trip from Manchester on August 14, 2025 despite being uninsured.
The pair spent 13 minutes in the area of the Defence Academy in Shrivenham before returning.
At around that time Al-Shamie made an entry in his iPhone notes entitled ‘Espionage’ which the court heard was ‘plainly’ a description of the reception area of the base.
Melvin Cravitz, 66, from Crumpsall, died in the deadly attack on the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue on October 2, 2025
Adrian Daulby, 53, also died after being accidentally shot by police as they gunned down terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie
Both Bashir and Al-Shamie deliberately disposed of their mobile phones after carrying out the hostile reconnaissance, Mr Polnay told the court.
Ultimately no attack was launched.
But within hours of Al-Shamie’s killing by armed police outside Heaton Park Synagogue, the seized handsets were being examined by counter-terrorism police.
Messages he had swapped were quickly downloaded and analysed, leading to a series of arrests.
Six people were arrested on the day of the attack, followed by Bashir when he returned from Pakistan on November 27.
A warrant was also obtained for Al-Shamie’s online iCloud storage.
The searches uncovered WhatsApp and voice note exchanges between the two jihadis, including a chat group called ‘Aspiring to the Ranks of the Elite’ of which they were both members.
Bashir sent over 2,000 messages to the group and prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC said he was a ‘long-standing, committed jihadist’.
His messages with Al-Shamie ‘demonstrated they were both close associates and both shared in an extremist worldview,’ he added.
In one exchange, on November 18 2024, Al-Shamie told Bashir how he had been working out at home and invited him to play football with him, adding: ‘May Allah grant you strength and make u even more war ready.’
Bashir told him: ‘Inshallah akhi [god willing brother], I’m gonna get on it. Then I’m gonna call out the biggest Jews to scrap.’
Fitness fanatic synagogue attacker Jihad Al-Shamie is said to have been obsessed with clean living and watching foreign news bulletins
Al-Shamie (pictured outside the synagogue during his deadly attack) travelled from Syria to Britain with his family as a young child and was granted UK citizenship in 2006, when he would have been around 16
On December 2, Al-Shamie sent a voicemail to Bashir saying he wanted to go and fight in Syria, where he was born.
‘I’ve had enough of this world,’ he added.
‘I’ve had enough of this life. I’ve had enough of all of it akhi [brother].
‘I don’t want to live in this miserable city, in this dunya [worldly life], for much longer uksumbillah [I swear by Allah].’
CCTV footage from the Al-Sunnah Mosque in Manchester – combined with data from Al-Shamie’s handset – demonstrated that both men were planning a terrorist attack on the Defence Academy, Mr Polnay said.
On the afternoon of August 9, 2025, both men arrived at the mosque in Al-Shamie’s Kia.
They sat in the car for 40 minutes while Al-Shamie carried out an internet search for ‘IDF soldiers UK’.
It led them to an article about Israeli army officers studying at the Royal College of Defence Studies in central London.
The pair re-entered the mosque at 7.10pm and sat down at the back – believing ‘erroneously’ that they wouldn’t be on camera, Mr Polnay said.
Instead, CCTV played to the court showed them reading the article at the back of a deserted prayer hall, checking no one else was around.
Al-Shamie then said: ‘Allahuakhbar, allahuakbar’ [god is great] and added: ‘There is no doubt that there will be Israeli IDF guys there.’
Bashir added: ‘You got to look into it bro, look into it, this is the place, this is the place.’
Al-Shamie said they could ‘just storm the place’ and told Bashir: ‘You’re a better driver than me, sometimes, I can’t view a map, I get stressed, I miss the exit.’
Bashir said there was ‘no doubt, no grey area’ and Al-Shamie added: ‘I wish we had a weapon. We need to get one, crossbow.’
He added: ‘Anyone working there, gone. Women and men.’
Bashir meanwhile stood up and gestured as though he was holding an assault rifle, saying he was ‘really excited’.
Al-Shamie told him that before they went on the ‘mission’ they would need to ‘say bye to loved ones’ and pay off any debts.
‘Of course,’ Bashir replied.
As they exit the mosque, Al-Shamie says: ‘It’s exciting.’
Bashir replies: ‘This is like, this time next year, we will be in green birds.’
Mr Polnay said a terrorism expert had noted that in Islamic literature, the ‘green birds of paradise are intimately linked to notions of martyrdom’.
Ultimately no attack on the Defence Academy or other military establishment took place.
The Crown said there was no evidence to suggest Bashir was involved in the planning of the attack at Heaton Park.
On his arrest, Bashir provided a prepared statement in which he described Al-Shamie as ‘clingy, obsessive and possibly depressed’ and said he was ‘disgusted’ by his mindset which ‘goes against the religion completely.’
He denied advance knowledge of the attack at the synagogue, saying he ‘never thought in a million years that Jihad would do something like that.’
‘It made me feel sick,’ he added.
Mohammed Nawaz KC, defending, told the court his family regarded him as a ‘decent, caring, hardworking man’.
But two years before the plot he had befriended Al-Shamie, connecting over ‘similar family issues about ex-partners’ before discussing passages from the Koran.
Bashir claimed that after the reconnaissance trip to Oxfordshire he ‘distanced’ himself from Al-Shamie because he no longer wanted to be involved in an attack.
However prosecutor Mr Polnay said the Crown was ‘sceptical’ about this claim, saying there was ‘no evidence he has disavowed violent jihad’.
Police say the mosque where the pair were captured plotting ‘fully co-operated’ with their investigation.
Bashir, of Cheetham Hill, Manchester, pleaded guilty in June to preparing a terrorist attack and disseminating terrorist material encouraging martyrdom over WhatsApp.
Jailing Bashir today for life with a minimum of 17 years, judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said he had been ‘equally engaged and enthusiastic’ as Al-Shamie about the plan and his sentencing ‘must stand as a warning’.
Afterwards Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts, head of Counter-Terrorism Policing North West, said Bashir was a ‘very dangerous man’ who was an ‘equal partner’ with Al-Shamie in the plot to attack the Defence Academy.
‘They were they were both vociferous in their extremist, antisemitic, deep rooted beliefs,’ he added.
Welcoming the life sentence imposed on Bashir, the Community Security Trust – whose volunteers were on duty when Al-Shamie attacked the synagogue – today thanked police and prosecutors.
But in a statement, the charity said would ‘obviously be distressing for the bereaved families, survivors, and the wider Jewish community to now learn that evidence relating to Jihad Al-Shamie’s extremist mindset was available to police but not examined prior to the terrible attack’.
Saying it ‘appreciated’ the chief constable’s apology, the group said it should not ‘detract’ from the ‘courage’ shown by police on the day or the ‘continuous support’ his force had subsequently given to Manchester’s Jewish community.
Police watchdog the IOPC today said it was investigating ‘all previous contact between Greater Manchester Police and Jihad Al-Shamie’ before the attack on October 2, 2025.
‘This includes the actions taken by police in response to reports of crimes committed by him,’ a spokesman added.
‘As part of our investigation, we will consider whether GMP missed any opportunities to prevent the tragic events that occurred last year.’
Last week GMP made them aware of ‘information relevant to these inquiries’ that had been recovered from devices seized as part of their investigation into Al-Shamie.
It is understood they have advised one officer that they are under investigation for potential misconduct in relation to their handling of allegations of rape and other sexual offences against Al-Shamie, although that does not necessarily mean that disciplinary proceedings will follow.
