Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood told his children he was “going to die fighting for God” in the weeks leading up to the atrocity.

The inquest into his victims’ deaths heard that during video calls to his younger children, who were living in east London while he stayed in Birmingham, he told them about dreams he had been having.

Detective Chief Inspector Dan Brown told the Old Bailey: “He told them that he was going to die fighting for God.”

In the days before he ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and stabbed Pc Keith Palmer on March 22 last year, he also searched for Birmingham Calor Gas Centre.

Mr Brown accepted it was “at least possible” that he had planned to use gas as a weapon.

The inquest heard Masood drove from Birmingham to Wales to visit his mother, Janet Ajao, and stepfather on March 16 after picking up the vehicle he used to carry out the attack.

Westminster attack flowers
Hundreds of floral tributes were left at the scene in the days and weeks following the attack (Yui Mok/PA)

Mr Brown said investigators “believe this to be what we now realise was a goodbye visit”.

The detective added: “As he was leaving the house on March 17 he turned over his shoulder and said, ‘they will say I’m a terrorist. I’m not.’”

Earlier, the court heard how his mother feared he would kill someone while he was still a teenager.

His failed relationships, violent criminal past, and conversion to Islam during the first of two spells in prison were laid bare in court.

Masood, 52, was shot dead by police after stabbing Pc Palmer, 48, and ploughing his rented 4×4 into Kurt Cochran, 54, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, on Westminster Bridge, causing fatal injuries.

The Old Bailey heard he believed his Muslim faith was reinforced by a number of “miracles in his life”.

Masood first got into trouble with the police for shoplifting when he was aged just 14 while at school in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where he lived with his mother, stepfather and two stepbrothers.

Counter-terror officer Mr Brown said: “His mother suggested he exhibited normal boisterous behaviour, but his two brothers suggested he was a violent, disruptive person, who would not back down from a disagreement.”

The Old Bailey heard his mother said he would go out to pubs and clubs looking for a fight as an older teenager.

“She also described him as an angry person,” Mr Brown said.

“She was worried he would kill someone through fighting.”

Jonathan Hough QC, counsel for the inquest, described a “number of incidents of significant violence escalating in seriousness and apparently becoming more regular”.

In May 2003, Masood plunged a carving knife through the nose of Daniel Smith, who had suggested Masood was an undercover policeman.

In what was described as a “horrific incident”, the blade went through the palate of his mouth, through the tongue and into his jaw with such force the last inch of the blade broke off.

Masood claimed self-defence and was acquitted of attempted murder, wounding with intent and having a bladed weapon.

He was released from West Sussex’s Lewes prison, where he had been held on remand, in December 2003 based on time served having been convicted of another weapons offence.

The inquest heard he credited his acquittal as well as the survival of his eldest daughter, who was later involved in a serious car accident, as the “miracles” that reinforced his Muslim faith after he had converted to Islam during his first spell in prison.