British police apologized Thursday for a “missed opportunity” to potentially prevent last year’s deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue after admitting that officers failed to examine data seized from the attacker before the killings.
The acknowledgment came as Mohammad Asim Bashir, 31, was sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in prison for helping Jihad Al-Shamie conduct hostile reconnaissance at the UK Defence Academy in Oxfordshire in August 2025.
Bashir admitted last month that he drove Al-Shamie on a 10-hour round trip from Manchester to the academy, which provides defence and security education to members of the armed forces and government personnel.
Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb described Bashir as a “committed jihadist” who had enthusiastically planned a terrorist attack with Al-Shamie. Messages exchanged by the two men included discussions of violence and revealed antisemitic views.
Six weeks after the trip to Oxfordshire, Al-Shamie drove a car into pedestrians outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue before attacking people with a knife.
One Jewish worshipper died from stab wounds and another was accidentally shot dead by police during the response.
Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, told police that he was acting on behalf of Islamic State before officers shot him dead.
Jihad Al-Shamie
During Bashir’s sentencing at Manchester Crown Court, prosecutors said Al-Shamie had been arrested twice before the synagogue attack. He was detained in February 2025 over an alleged breach of a non-molestation order and again in September over an alleged rape.
Police seized his mobile devices, but the court heard that their contents were not examined until after the synagogue attack.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Stephen Watson said he was “deeply sorry” that officers had failed to review material containing significant evidence of Al-Shamie’s extremist mindset.
“It is clear that our not having reviewed the data available to us prior to the attack constitutes a missed opportunity,” Watson said.
He added that the information found on the devices would likely have led to further investigative steps.
(Photo: Paul Currie / AFP)
“There can, however, be little doubt that the information contained within these devices would have inspired further investigative action,” he said.
During the October attack, Al-Shamie called police and said: “I pledge allegiance to the Islamic State and I have killed two Jews.”
Watson said it would be for the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the inquests into the deaths to determine what impact the failure to examine the devices had on events.
Bashir’s sentence focused on his role in the earlier reconnaissance mission. Prosecutors said he knowingly helped Al-Shamie survey the UK Defence Academy as part of preparations for possible terrorist activity.
The case has intensified scrutiny of how police handled Al-Shamie before the synagogue attack and whether earlier examination of his devices could have exposed his extremist intentions in time to intervene.