Warrington: Colin Parry says lone wolf terrorism ‘huge challenge’

Twelve-year-old Tim was killed alongside three-year-old Johnathan Ball when the IRA detonated bombs, near a busy shopping centre in 1993.

Mr Parry set up the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation in 1995, and opened a peace centre in 2000 which aims to bring communities together, help victims and provide peaceful alternatives to the use of violence in conflict situations.

He said: “A lone operator, a very disturbed young man who has probably converted himself to such harsh beliefs and harsh behaviours… maybe just in his own bedroom turned himself into the dangerous person he became,” he said.

Mr Parry said it was “a huge challenge” to tackle.

“I don’t know how he – or people like him – can be intercepted before they do something terrible as he did.

“The security forces back in the day knew where active IRA members lived and could undertake considerable surveillance techniques,” he said.

He warned people to be on their guard for family members becoming isolated and if they suspected they had become radicalised to tell police or other agencies.

He said: “They really do have to speak up because the consequences not just for them but the wider community can be awful.”

Rudakubana, 18, of Banks, Lancashire, killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and injured 10 others on 29 July.