The lawyer for the London Bridge attacker has told the ABC he was shocked when he heard Usman Khan was responsible for the stabbing rampage, saying when he saw him last year he was convinced he was reformed.
Solicitor Vajahat Sharif has questioned whether enough was done to "deradicalise" Khan during the eight years he spent in prison.
Mr Sharif began representing the terrorist before his jailing in 2012 for a terrorism offence, including a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange.
"When he was arrested he was teenager, when he was sentenced he was 19 years old," Mr Sharif told the ABC.
"So I'm sure he could have overcome this improper thinking with the right assistance and guidance."
The ABC understands Khan did attend anti-terror workshops while in prison, but Mr Sharif argues he needed more targeted assistance.
"I was very shocked, very upset for the victims and their families and also very upset about what happened to Usman. How did something like this happen?" Mr Sharif questioned.
In a letter sent from London's Belmarsh Prison to Mr Sharif's associate in 2012, and seen by the ABC, Khan asked to be placed in a "deradicalisation" program.
"I would be grateful if you could arrange some kind of course, that I can do where I can properly learn Islam," Khan wrote.
"And I can prove I don't carry the extreme view that I might have carried before."
'Something has gone completely wrong'
He had been sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2012 but was released on licence in December last year.
He had been wearing an electronic tag.
One of Khan's two victims has been named as 25-year-old Jack Merritt, a Cambridge University graduate who was course coordinator for prisoner rehabilitation program Learning Together.
The criminology program was hosting a conference at Fishmongers' Hall when Khan — who was in attendance — threatened to blow up the venue before stabbing several people including Mr Merritt.
Mr Sharif told the ABC he could not fault the decision to grant early release at the time.
"While he was in custody he was engaging fully and completely with whatever the prison probation authorities required of him," Mr Sharif said.
"On the face of it he was a success, he was doing very well so something has gone completely wrong."
In the letter sent in 2012, Kahn wrote that he wanted to "live my life as a good Muslim and also a good citizen of Britain".
