You say in your editorial (3 March) that “levels of secrecy that go beyond MI5’s operational needs damage public confidence and breed conspiracy theories”. The truth is more prosaic and infinitely more depressing. MI5 has avoided effective scrutiny of its operational failures, most recently at Fishmongers’ Hall in 2019, where Usman Khan killed our son, Jack Merritt, and Saskia Jones, by appearing to hide behind the need to maintain secrecy lest terrorists discover its methods.
The establishment refuses to see its obvious incompetence and disingenuousness. At the inquests of Jack and Saskia, the coroner did not require any of the MI5 staff involved in the surveillance of Khan to be questioned, even under strict anonymity and with previously agreed questions. Instead, MI5 put up a “corporate witness” who gave evidence from inside a sealed box and provided no useful information.
