Xavier Thomas
Died 3 June 2017
Who they were
Xavier lived in a town near Paris and had worked for American Express for 25 years. He was a devoted father to Noémie and Nicolas, whom he had largely raised on his own. His parents said the children were the apple of his eye and that he always kept smiling. He was engaged to Christine, with whom he was on a weekend trip to London.
What happened
He was walking hand in hand with his fiancée across London Bridge when the van struck them; she survived. On the evening of Saturday 3 June 2017, three men drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then attacked people with knives around Borough Market. Eight people were killed and many injured. Police shot the attackers within ten minutes, so there was no trial; inquests in 2019 found the victims had been unlawfully killed.
Verdict / confirmation
No trial – attackers killed at the scene. Inquests (Old Bailey, 2019): all eight victims unlawfully killed; attackers lawfully killed by police.
Status: No trial
Perpetrator: Three attackers, all shot dead by police: one born in Jhelum, Pakistan (British citizen, indefinite leave to remain 2004); one Moroccan/Libyan (UK asylum claim refused 2009); one Italian-Moroccan, born in Fez, Morocco (BBC, inquest).