The Yom Kippur killer was on bail for alleged rape before his synagogue attack, it emerged last night.

Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was under investigation by Greater Manchester Police over a sexual attack carried out this year and was due to appear in court.

It is believed unemployed Al-Shamie was also facing mounting debts and the collapse of his marriage, with his wife leaving the family home with their one-year-old son six months ago.

Residents said he was a loner who spent his days in pyjamas, bulking up by weightlifting in his garden and annoying neighbours by parking his battered Kia badly.

Al-Shamie was shot dead by armed police on Thursday after he killed a Jewish worshipper and seriously injured others during a rampage at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue.

The killer had criminal convictions for lesser offences not related to terror, but was not known to counter-terror agencies.

However, police are thought to be investigating whether he was responsible for a death threat sent to a Conservative MP in 2012 over his support for Israel.

The email to ex-MP John Howell from someone calling themselves ‘Jihad Alshamie’, said: ‘It is people like you who deserve to die.’

Mr Howell, who stood down as MP for Henley in 2024, said he did not know if it was the same person, but did not feel police took the threat seriously at the time.

Work is now under way to piece together the background of the Syrian-born attacker, who from the age of four grew up in the very community he attacked.

Footage from the scene of the blood-soaked knifeman clad in a fake bomb belt are a far cry from the cheerful home videos of his childhood posted online.

In the clips he is seen as a beaming, wide-eyed eight-year-old playing in the garden of their modest semi-detached home with his two younger brothers.

Another shows him at the Trafford Centre shopping mall, eyes wide as a magician performs a magic trick while a third shows him singing Christmas carols at his school nativity play.

In one grainy clip, the young boy gushes as he points out his crush on his school class photo, teased mercilessly by his laughing family.

His proud parents – a middle-class couple from Syria – capture the scenes on a shaky handheld camcorder.

There is no hint in this string of home videos that this smiling child, the eldest son of trauma surgeon Faraj Al-Shamie would one day turn into a killer.

Mr Howell, who stood down as MP for Henley in 2024, said he did not know if it was the same person, but did not feel police took the threat seriously at the time.

Work is now under way to piece together the background of the Syrian-born attacker, who from the age of four grew up in the very community he attacked.

Footage from the scene of the blood-soaked knifeman clad in a fake bomb belt are a far cry from the cheerful home videos of his childhood posted online.

In the clips he is seen as a beaming, wide-eyed eight-year-old playing in the garden of their modest semi-detached home with his two younger brothers.

Another shows him at the Trafford Centre shopping mall, eyes wide as a magician performs a magic trick while a third shows him singing Christmas carols at his school nativity play.

In one grainy clip, the young boy gushes as he points out his crush on his school class photo, teased mercilessly by his laughing family.

His proud parents – a middle-class couple from Syria – capture the scenes on a shaky handheld camcorder.

There is no hint in this string of home videos that this smiling child, the eldest son of trauma surgeon Faraj Al-Shamie would one day turn into a killer.

Minutes of terror: How a fanatic launched a hate-filled rampage