Murdered MP Sir David Amess’s daughter breaks family’s silence on their ‘unbearable pain’ – and asks: ‘How was a terrorist free to kill Dad?’

The distraught daughter of David Amess has broken her silence on their family’s ‘unbearable pain’ after he was murdered by a terrorist. 

The 69-year-old father-of-five was stabbed to death while meeting constituents at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on October 15 in 2021. 

His killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was found guilty of murder and handed a whole-life prison term at the Old Bailey in 2022. 

Now his second child Katie Amess, 39, has spoken about the tragedy for the first time to the Sunday Times, saying: ‘It’s just the most unbearable, unspeakable pain. We’ve lost a great, great man who can’t be replaced. Now I just want to make him proud by fighting back against being told no to something that we should be allowed to know.

‘How was a terrorist free to kill Dad?’ 

Sir David became MP for Basildon in 1983, and was knighted for services to political and public service in 2015.

Ali, a British citizen and son of a former media adviser to a prime minister of Somalia, repeatedly stabbed Amess in the 2021 attack for what he said was revenge for the lawmaker’s support for airstrikes on Syria.

He had radicalised himself by consuming extremist material online. The Met said Ali ‘spent some time’ in Prevent before coming out of it ‘by his own admission’.

The Prevent programme, which covers England and Wales, aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism by tackling the ideological causes, intervening early to support people considered ‘susceptible to radicalisation’, and enabling people ‘who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate’.

Katie said: ‘My father gave 40 years of his life, day in, day out, to his people and his country. He is owed the decency and the respect to find out where he was failed.

‘He just loved his people, and he thought they deserved recognition as a city, and he was just on his high horse about it and he wasn’t going to let it go.’ 

A statue of the murdered MP was unveiled on Southend seafront in a ceremony attended by his family and other politicians in April. 

Sir David’s widow, Lady Julia Amess, attended along with other family members and listened to songs from the Music Man Project, a group championed by Sir David which teaches music to children and adults with learning disabilities, and from the Orpheus Choir. 

Katie continued that she was sure he would have smiled at his would-be murderer and welcomed him into the surgery on the day of his death. 

‘He was friends with everyone. He couldn’t stop himself. He was just always out and about with the public. 

‘He loved meeting people and had friends everywhere. After it happened, we got thousands of letters to the house, and so many of them said, ‘I’ve lost my best friend’. That’s just who my dad was.’ 

His widow Lady Amess added in an earlier statement: ‘He would have greeted the murderer with a smile of friendship and would have been anxious to help. How sickening to think what happened next. It is beyond evil.’

Ali told the trial he had no regrets about the murder, defending his actions by saying Sir David deserved to die because he had voted in Parliament for air strikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015. 

‘We know the guy did it,’ said Katie. ‘I just want to know how and why he was allowed to … What has been changed to ensure that this never happens again and that another family doesn’t have to go through the absolute heartbreak and trauma that has just shattered our world?’ 

Despite this Katie remains empathetic towards his family: ‘I’m sure they are devastated, their world must be broken as well. That’s their son.’ 

She is currently in the process of taking legal action against the police and the Home Office for failing to prevent his death.

High Court papers revealed in January  showed she had filed a personal injury claim against the authorities.

It came after an independent review of the Prevent scheme last year found it was failing.