'Sweetheart, I'm going to miss you' – 7/7 bomber's farewell to daughter

A HOME video of the ringleader of the 7 July bombings introducing his baby daughter to a man accused of helping him plot the attacks was shown to a court yesterday.

In the footage, Mohammed Siddique Khan, the Edgware Road bomber, films the child meeting her three "uncles".

Two of the men who would go on to join him in the 2005 attacks on the London transport system, Shezhad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain, smile and lark about for the camera, while the third, Waheed Ali, 24, is one of three men accused of carrying out a reconnaissance of possible targets for the bombers to attack.

Ali is seen on the footage holding the child in his arms and bouncing her up and down, saying "Where's daddy?" The footage then moves back to the kitchen where Khan holds his daughter and kisses her head while recording a goodbye message in a soft voice.

He says: "Sweetheart, not long to go now. And I'm going to really, really miss you a lot. I'm thinking about it already. Look, I absolutely love you to bits and you have been the happiest thing in my life…

I just wish I could have been part of your life, especially these growing up – these next months, they're really special with you learning to walk and things. I just so much wanted to be with you but I have to do this thing for our future and it will be for the best, inshallah, in the long run… Most importantly, I entrust you to Allah and let Allah take care of you. And I am doing what I'm doing for the sake of Islam, not, you know, it's not for materialistic or worldly benefits."

Ali, from Tower Hamlets, east London, and Sadeer Saleem, 27, and Mohammed Shakil, 31, from Leeds, deny conspiring with the four suicide bombers to cause explosions between 17 November, 2004, and 8 July, 2005.

The jury at Kingston Crown Court were told yesterday that the men were very close. It is the prosecution case, they were told, that when Khan decided to take his planned mission of jihad from Afghanistan to the UK, they agreed to help him.

Neil Flewitt, QC, prosecuting, has told the court the three undertook a "hostile reconnaissance of potential targets" during a two-day trip to London, visiting the London Eye, the London Aquarium and the Natural History Museum. Mr Flewitt said the locations they visited "bore a striking similarity" to those where the bombs were eventually detonated.

The defendants say their trip was an "innocent social outing", he told the jury, but the prosecution case is that it was "part of a sinister plot to cause explosions".

Mr Flewitt said the three claimed their friendship with the bombers was "entirely innocent". But he told the jury they would see material seized from the men's homes that would "provide a valuable insight into their attitudes and beliefs". These include images of the devastation wrought by 9/11, a long tract glorying in the achievement of those responsible and T-shirts saying "Warriors of Allah".

The home video is believed to have been shot in Khan's home in the days before he flew to Pakistan in November 2004 to "fight jihad". Once there, however, Mr Flewitt said Khan and Tanweer had a "change of plan" and they returned to the UK, where Khan masterminded the 7 July attacks which killed 52 people.

The court earlier heard that both Ali and Shakil had been on trips to Pakistan with Khan in 2001 and 2003.

With some family members of 7 July victims sitting in the public gallery, the court was shown previously unseen CCTV footage from the London transport network on the day of the attack, including film from the British Medical Association in Tavistock Square, where the No 30 bus was blown up by Hasib Hussain.

The trial continues.