TWO men said to have been arrested changed their appearances after converting to a devout form of Islam, according to neighbours.

One is said to be Ibrahim Savant, who became a devout Muslim about seven or eight years ago, according to a friend. He may have been a born Muslim who became more interested in his faith in later years.

Oliver Savant was a popular boy growing up in the terrace of Folkestone Road, Walthamstow. He played football and joined local soccer clubs. But around 1998, when he was a teenager, neighbours said, he began wearing Muslim white gowns and grew a long beard.

It was then that Mr Savant, who has a brother, Adam, was understood to have changed his name to Ibrahim, neighbours said. According to the electoral register, a number of males named Savant occupy the home along with a woman called Marilyn Moseley. The family live in one of six 1960s terraced houses at the end of a street of Victorian homes. A number of mosques are in the area and a madrassa, an Islamic school, is run near by.

Paul Kleinman, 66, a retired fireman, said that the family moved into the house in about 1975. “I’ve known him since the day he was born. His dad invited me in for a drink when he was born. We’ve always got on with them very well. Adam and Oliver both went to university but I think Oliver dropped out.

“All of a sudden Oliver started to put the white robes on. He had friends who dressed in a similar way who would visit him. I think his dad’s an architect and is from Iran and his mother is an accountant. His mother’s English. He used to be a keen trumpet player and played to a high level. He’s a very nice and polite young man.”

A friend from Henry Maynard Primary School said that Mr Savant was a talented footballer, extremely well known and liked in the area.“I’m completely shocked that this has happened and I think anyone who knows him would be shocked as well,” he said.

Similar accounts came from residents of Hepplewhite Close, High Wycombe. where the other man is said to have changed after converting to Islam. He grew a beard and made different friends. Friends and neighbours who watched him grow up were shocked over his apparent arrest.

A neighbour said that the man still lived with his widowed mother, who was believed to be on holiday. He added that the man and his sister had converted to Islam about a year ago. “He had grown a long beard and had shaved his head. The people he was hanging around with were different.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Phone tycoon put in charge of Olympics purse
• Mark Speight hanged himself with shoelaces
• Exams board ‘battery farming pupils’