Chemical attack suspect 'exposed himself to woman at bus stop' claims friend

06 February 2024 , 22:34

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Police forces across the country are searching for Abdul Ezedi (Image: Met Police)

Chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi "exposed himself to a woman waiting at a bus stop", his friend has claimed.

Ezedi, 35, has been on the run since Wednesday when he was alleged to have doused a mother and her two young children with a chemical in Clapham, south London. The youngest daughter, aged three, and the mum were reported to have sustained "life-changing injuries" in the horror.

Police, who are offering £20,000 to anyone with information leading to Ezedi's arrest, earlier today released new CCTV images showing the convicted sex offender's last known movements - walking through the City of London - at around 10pm on Wednesday.

Now a friend in Tyneside, where Ezedi is from, has claimed the fugitive previously exposed himself to a woman at a bus stop. Ezedi was convicted of a sexual assault in 2018 but the friend, who Ezedi met working in a takeaway restaurant, said the incident at a bus stop happened after the assault for which he was found guilty.

"He didn't go to jail but was released and had a tag on his leg. He lost his job but he applied for new work and as soon as his tag was taken off he found a new job and continued to send money home. He's very intelligent. He speaks very good English and got onto a college course in Newcastle to improve his English, that was important to him," the source said.

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The chemical attack happened near Clapham Common on Wednesday evening (PA)

The friend spoke to The Telegraph amid the hunt for the sex fiend, who is understood to have travelled 280 miles from Newcastle to Clapham for the chemical attack on Wednesday.

Ezedi, who is originally from Afghanistan, had two asylum applications rejected before he was granted leave to remain despite being convicted of the sex offence. Ezedi was placed on the sex offender register for 10 years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work when he was handed a suspended sentence at Newcastle Crown Court on January 9, 2018.

His friend, who is a 33-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, also revealed that the fugitive was "very angry" and vowed to avenge the armed robbers who shot his sister dead in his native Afghanistan.

The friend explained that Ezedi had been wholly committed to sending money back to his family in Afghanistan. However in around 2017 or 2018, it became "known in the neighbourhood" that he was sending large amounts of money back home, the friend said. There is no evidence that the attack in Clapham had any connection to the robbery in Afghanistan and friends of Ezedi are mystified by the motive.

Bradley Jolly