Smiling for the camera, Emad Al Swealmeen looks like just another happy young man posing for social media snaps.
The go-karting lover and budding pizza cook would become a suicide bomber.
Al Swealmeen (32), was born in Iraq and raised in Syria. Al Swealmeen arrived in Britain seven year ago. Friends claimed that Al Swealmeen had suffered from mental illness and was even once sectioned because he held a knife close to Liverpool’s center.
After leaving Islam, he converted to Christianity and attended bible classes at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.
In his initial plan, the location was thought to be the focus of his Remembrance Day plot.
Al Swealmeen made a deed-poll change to his name in May 2017. This was to make the name easier to pronounce. Enzo Ferrari is the name of Enzo Almeni.
Pictures online show trips to a go-kart track – and a chequered flag tattooed on his arm.
Al Swealmeen, a car-mad asylum seeker, changed his name to Enzo Almenien by means of a deed vote in May 2017, to make it more pronounceable. Enzo Almeni, a car-mad asylum seeker in tribute to Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari.
Social media photos show that the 32-year-old had been a frequent visitor to the track for go-kart racing.
He is the son of a Syrian mother and a Syrian father. In November 2014, he applied to the Home Office in his first attempt for asylum. Malcolm Hitchcott, friend and lay pastor of Malcolm Hitchcott stated that Hitchcott was quickly arrested for having a large knife.
Al Swealmeen was a regular attendee of the ‘instruction’ workshops, Bible study classes and other activities led by Mr Hitchcott at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
There he received his confirmation into Christianity by Elizabeth Hitchcott (his wife) on March 27, 2017, in a ceremony.
The devout couple of 77 offered their house to Al Swealmeen, a homeless man, to stay in the home, rent free, as they had no other place to call his own.
A shocked Mr Hitchcott claimed last night that he felt “numbed” by Sunday’s explosion. He said that he had stayed in Aigburth with a ‘lovely’ man.
The former soldier stated that his wife and I would now need to accept the reality of the man who lived with us for the past eight months.
Al Swealmeen was a typically calm man, and would take his men for walks. He would then ‘talk endlessly passionately about Jesus’.
Asking why Al Swealmeen became a Christian, Mr Hitchcott answered: ‘Many asylum seekers don’t see much Islam. [for them].’
He claimed that Al Swealmeen was a friend of his and his wife.
The Hitchcotts were happy to have their guest leave after just eight months. They were on vacation and worried that he would be alone at home. Mrs Hitchcott stated that he had asked permission to stay, and would be accompanied by their daughter, but instead he chose to go.
They can’t recall Al Swealmeen speaking about anything political, but they do remember one flashpoint.
Hitchcott stated that Mr Hitchcott was involved in an earlier incident, where he was caught by police holding a very large knife on the Churchill Way Flyover.
“I do not know if he ever threatened anybody, but he was sectioned several months later.”
“He clearly had mental instability, because he once accused me of opening my mail. The man came into my house and told me, “Is there anything you want to learn about me?” He said that we would never dream of such a thing. He came and apologized afterward.
He had received a small box, and told me that it was for his friend… which makes me wonder how it got there. Evidently, he didn’t want my nose poked in. We were otherwise on good terms.
“If there was a job we were interested in, he’d do it.
Online photos show that this car lover also had a tattoo of a chequered flag on his arm
Mrs Hitchcott claimed that Al Swealmeen would join them at the food bank, and also help around the house. He was private and industrious. He was a great artist, loved art, and could make a good pizza.
Al Swealmeen is seen in white chef’s clothes that his hosts bought him.
Al Swealmeen hadn’t been seen by Mr Hitchcott in many years. His wife, however, met him twice last year at the town center.
It must have been in spring 2019 as it was pre-Covid.
He said that he had just started a cake decorating class and was extremely excited about the idea. He assured me he’d keep in touch. But I did not hear from him.