A series of threatening phone calls made to the son of Sir David Amess the evening before the MP’s murder were “not linked in any way” to the attack, police have said.
The Conservative MP’s daughter, actor Katherine Amess, has called for a full inquest into her father’s death, questioning why the police did not protect his constituency surgery after the threats.
She told Radio 4’s Today programme that the night before the murder, her brother received a phone call saying that their “father was going to be killed”, which he immediately reported to the police.
“Subsequently the police say they arrested people who made the phone call and it was not related but that’s just irrelevant to us because they should have gone still,” she told the programme.
“Just one threat should be enough for you to go and protect somebody,” she said.
“If they were there my dad probably wouldn’t be dead and I think we need to have a full investigation into why they didn’t show up.”
David Amess, 69, was stabbed to death by Ali Harbi Ali at Belfairs Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex while holding a constituency surgery on 15 October 2021.
Essex police said in a statement on Tuesday that the force was contacted at around 9pm on 14 October 2021 “following reports of threats made to a man in his 30s”.
“We immediately launched an investigation and a woman in her 20s and a man in his 30s, both from Southend, were arrested,” the force said.
“This incident and the murder of Sir David were not linked in any way, and the people arrested and the person the threat was made directly to were known to each other and none were connected to Ali Harbi Ali.”
Ali was sentenced to a whole-life prison term for the murder in 2022.
Katherine Amess, who lives in California, has begun legal action against Essex police and the Home Office.
She filed a personal injury claim against the two authorities in December, according to high court papers.
“The guy that killed my father admitted that he had gone to another surgery or other people’s houses to kill them and when he saw a police presence he obviously didn’t go through with the attack,” she told the Today programme.
“Had the police been there, we might not be sitting here today without my father.”
An Essex police spokesperson paid tribute to David Amess, adding that two of the force’s officers tried to save him and detained his killer.
“We are aware that what is in effect a protective claim form has been filed at court. However, as these papers have not been served on our force, we are unable to comment any further upon them.”
The senior coroner for Essex, Lincoln Brookes, addressed the issue of the threatening calls in his decision not to resume an inquest into the MP’s death. He said that an investigation into the calls “established that this was a wholly unconnected event”, and they “were not threats to Sir David’s life”.
