Manchester terrorist was reportedly out on bail for alleged rape committed earlier this year

3 October 2025, 7:47 pm

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Jihad al-Shamie, who carried out a deadly terrorist attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester, UK, on Yom Kippur, October 2, 2025. (Image circulated on social media)

The Manchester synagogue terrorist was reportedly out on bail for an alleged rape.

Jihad al-Shamie was being investigated for a sexual assault that allegedly took place earlier this year, The Guardian reveals.

The Syrian-born UK citizen is also believed to have other criminal convictions, but he was not on the radar of counter-terror authorities, The Guardian says.

“He was on nobody’s radar for terrorism but he definitely had a criminal record, though nothing to suggest he was going to do anything like this,” one source tells the British daily.

Police are also probing whether Shamie was behind a death threat sent to former Conservative MP John Howell in 2012. The threat was signed by someone also named “Jihad Alshamie.”

“It is people like you who deserve to die,” the message read.

Howell in 2012 told The Jerusalem Post that he didn’t feel like authorities had taken the threat seriously and that he believed he was targeted due to his support for Israel.