Once I’d accepted my punishment, I decided to seek help. Referring to his conviction for murder, Gallant said: “It is right I was handed a severe penalty for my actions. Merritt had mentored Gallant behind bars, and Gallant has described him as a “role model and friend”. Gallant and Merritt had met previously through Jack’s role at rehabilitation service Learning Together in 2016. He was very close to Jack and he turned his life around and reformed. Merritt’s father David, 55, of Cottenham in Cambridgeshire, said: “Steve fully deserves this pardon, or reduction in sentence. Khan was stood in the foyer with two large knives in his hands. In a statement he said: “I could tell something was wrong and had to help. The convicted terrorist Khan, 28, had also been invited to the event as a rehabilitating offender out on licence, despite being jailed in 2012 for planning to bomb the London Stock Exchange.Īfter Khan produced two knives and attacked conference co-ordinators Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, Gallant was handed an ornamental 5ft narwhal tusk from a wall to use as a weapon and chased the terrorist on to the bridge, where Khan was shot dead by police.Īfterwards, Gallant said he “didn’t hesitate” to confront Khan. Gallant was on his first day release at a Learning Together conference set up to help rehabilitate prisoners when the attack took place in the Fishmongers’ Hall next to London Bridge last November. Jackson’s student son Jack, 21, said: “I have mixed emotions – but what happened at London Bridge goes to show the reality that people can change,” adding that he would not rule out meeting his father’s killer one day.
#GALLANT IN A SENTENCE FREE#
In an extraordinary turn of events, the family of firefighter Barrie Jackson, whom Gallant killed outside a pub in Hull, backed the decision to free the murderer early. The Ministry of Justice said the Queen was advised to grant this pardon as a result of Gallant’s “exceptionally brave actions which helped save people’s lives despite the tremendous risk to his own”. Gallant, 42, will see the 17-year sentence he received in 2005 reduced by 10 months, and could go before a parole board next June to rubber stamp his freedom, the Mirror reported.
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