MI5’s Minority Report unit foil seven terror attacks by reading the minds of terrorists
Team analyse suspects' behaviour to decide whether they are about to carry out an attack
A SPECIAL unit created by MI5 to read the minds of terrorists has helped foil seven attacks in the last year.
The team of boffins analyse suspects' behaviour to decide whether they are about to carry out a terror attack.
They are made up of criminologists, psychologists and other academics who work in the intelligence service's London HQ.
Research by MI5 shows more than 60 per cent of lone wolf attackers provide clues they are about to strike with their changing behaviour.
And it is the job of the Behavioural Science Unit (BSU) to "get inside the heads" of terrorists and pick up signs of changing activity.
The intelligence is passed to the unit by spooks from their network of informants and the public.
The experts then search for signs of unusual activity such as "increasing sense of grievance, a desire to acquire skills and tactics - an attempt to identify material for their plans and logistical practice and trial runs".
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One researcher Neil, an Arabic and Norwegian speaker who has worked for the unit for six years, said: "It takes some doing to go from talking about carrying out a violent act like killing to actually doing it."
He also told how "only two per cent" of terrorists suffer from mental health problems compared with 30 per cent of members of the public.
The unit, which has doubled in size since the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in 2013, has compiled a database of intelligence after studying terrorist attacks.
It takes some doing to go from talking about carrying out a violent act like killing to actually doing it
A report had shown Muslim converts Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale displayed subtle signs of becoming more radical in the lead up to the attack.
And in 2010 Roshonara Choudhry, who stabbed the MP Stephen Timms, quit her college course, cleared out her bank accounts and settled her student loan over fears her parents would be passed the debt.
The BSU, set up in 2004, MI5 and other security services are monitoring hundreds of Brit jihadists including 400 who have returned to the UK after travelling to Syria.