Mohammad Sidique Khan is thought to be one of the men behind the bomb attacks on London. Northcliffe parliamentary correspondent David Macaulay (right) met him in 2002. Here, he tells his story...

The last time I saw Mohammad Sidique Khan he clapped his arms around my shoulders and smiled at me broadly. Three years later he became one of Britain's first suicide bombers.

It was April 2002, just six months after the horrific al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

There was nothing to alert me to the fact that Britain's answer to 9/11 may have already been fermenting in the mind of Khan, a teaching mentor in Beeston, a run-down suburb of Leeds.

I was working as a casual reporter on the Times Education Supplement and was sent north to meet the head of Hillside Primary School.

The head, Sarah Balfour, admitted that remembering the names of the children was a challenge, as the school had a turnover of 50 per cent in two terms as asylum seeker families moved in and out.

Ms Balfour took me to the staff room to introduce me to their latest weapon in the war against transience - mentors.

Khan caught my eye and smiled, before he strode across the room and shook my hand.

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