Murder suspect flees UK and 'taunts victim's family'

A suspect in the killing of a teenage boy was able to flee the country when police officers failed to alert border and immigration control of his identity.

- HOLLY EVANS

Ilyas Habibi was attacked just minutes after leaving Sutton train station in south London on 5 December last year, suffering a fatal knife wound to the neck while he was travelling home from college.

However, the prime suspect in the murder was able to leave the UK via Gatwick airport four days later, with Mr Habibi’s family told that there had been an “error with the computers”, which had allowed him to escape. The man is believed to have fled to a country in the Middle East and has not been named at the request of the Met Police.

In an even more sinister twist, the family said that the alleged killer has recently made contact with Ilyas’s older brother, joking about how he left the 17-year-old “choking” on his blood. Speaking to The Independent, his brother Mr Habibi says: “I’m only trying to think about who killed my brother. The police don’t even get in contact, someone was murdered and they don’t care.