Saskia Jones
1996 – 2019
London Bridge, London
Perpetrator
Saskia Jones was a 23-year-old criminology student and dedicated volunteer who was killed alongside Jack Merritt in the London Bridge terror attack on in 2019.
On 29 November 2019, Usman Khan, a 28-year-old British-Pakistani from Stoke-on-Trent with a history of Islamist extremism, carried out a terrorist stabbing attack at a Learning Together offender rehabilitation conference in Fishmongers’ Hall near London Bridge.
Khan, who had previously been convicted for terrorism offences including a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange and establish a training camp in Pakistan, was attending the event on a one-day exemption from his London ban while on licence from a 16-year sentence.
Wearing a fake suicide vest and with two knives taped to his wrists, he stabbed five people, killing two conference participants—Jack Merritt (25), a Cambridge criminology graduate and course coordinator, and Saskia Jones (23), a former student—by stabbing them in the chest; three others (two women seriously and one chef less seriously) were injured.
Khan fled onto London Bridge, where members of the public heroically restrained him using a fire extinguisher, narwhal tusk, and other improvised weapons until armed police arrived and shot him dead. The attack was motivated by Islamic extremism, with ISIS later claiming responsibility
She had committed herself to prison rehabilitation work and had a bright future in criminal justice ahead of her. Saskia is remembered as a warm, generous and determined young woman.
Rest in peace Saskia. You will not be forgotten.
