July 7 bomb warning 'given two years ago'

Two police forces yesterday refused to comment on claims that a computer expert warned them about two of the 7 July bombers two years before the attacks.

Martin Gilbertson said that he went to the police in 2003 after becoming alarmed at anti-Western material being produced in the Islamic bookshop in Beeston where he worked.

Mr Gilbertson told officers at the local Holbeck police station that he had names and material he wanted to hand over. But he was told to post the material to West Yorkshire police in Wakefield. Mr Gilbertson says that he received no response until he was interviewed by officers from the Metropolitan Police when he contacted them last July. "I wish I could have had some access to MI5. I probably could have got them in there, before the bombs went off," he said.

Yesterday neither West Yorkshire nor the Metropolitan Police responded to his allegations.