A court in Manchester handed a life sentence on Thursday to an accomplice of a jihadist who last year perpetrated an attack on a local synagogue that killed two people and seriously wounded three others.
A top policeman subsequently apologized for overlooked information that could have helped prevent the crime.
Some of the evidence used to convict and sentence the accomplice, Mohammed Bashir, came from cell phones belonging to his late partner, Jihad Al-Shamie, the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said in a statement following the sentencing at the Manchester Crown Court. Al-Shamie’s Oct. 2 stabbing attack at the Heaton Park synagogue ended with the death of two victims as well as his own.
Bashir, who was sentenced after pleading guilty last month to one count of preparation for acts of terrorism, and Al-Shamie discussed preparing for “war” and frequently made antisemitic remarks in WhatsApp conversations, police said following the sentencing.
Both men had made a 10-hour round trip to conduct hostile reconnaissance of the U.K. Defence Academy in Shrivenham in August 2025, the statement said.
Police reached Bashir by searching the online correspondence of Al-Shamie after the attack, police said. However, police had access to the cell phones of Al-Shamie from earlier arrests in February and September 2025. The devices were “regrettably” not examined before the synagogue attack, read a statement by the Greater Manchester Police.
The Chief Constable of GMP, Stephen Watson, wrote in the statement about the failure: “I am disappointed at the prospect of adding to the distress of all of those affected by the terrible events last October. For this, I am deeply sorry.” There can “be little doubt that the information contained within these devices would have inspired further investigative action,” Watson also wrote. This information was made public following Bashir’s sentencing, the statement explained.
Police seized the devices in February 2025 and September in connection with allegations against Al-Shamie that did not relate to terrorist offenses, Watson’s statement said. “These allegations resulted in his being arrested on Feb.13, 2025, on suspicion of breaching a non-molestation order; and on Sept. 21, 2025, on suspicion of rape,” the statement read.
Al-Shamie was on bail when he committed the attack on the synagogue.
“In conducting an internal review, it became apparent that GMP had seized Al-Shamie’s mobile devices, at the point of each arrest. The significance of the data contents of these devices was substantial, in respect of evidencing an extremist mindset,” Watson added.
The significance of the information stored on Al-Shamie’s devices “was not realized as they had not been examined before the attack took place” in October 2025 on Yom Kippur, Watson said.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct and the Coronial Inquests “to determine the impact of not reviewing the contents of the devices,” Watson added.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a watchdog group and security unit of British Jewry, in a statement welcomed Bashir’s sentencing and thanked the Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service for their work throughout the investigation and prosecution of the case.
“The attack on Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur was a horrific act of antisemitic terrorism that left two people dead and others seriously injured. It will 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,” CST wrote, adding, “We appreciate Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson’s apology and Greater Manchester Police’s candor about this matter.”
Bashir is to serve out a minimum term of 16 years and 135 days.
