The UK-wide manhunt for chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi entered its seventh day as a close friend described his conversion to Christianity to get asylum as “a joke”.
Ex-colleagues insisted they knew nothing about it and Ezedi conducted himself as a “good Muslim”.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police have been searching for Afghan refugee Ezedi since a mother and her two daughters, aged three and eight, were doused with a corrosive alkaline liquid in Clapham, south London.
Police will return to the scene of the attack on Lessar Avenue on Wednesday night, speaking to people and handing out leaflets.
The 31-year-old mother may lose the sight in her right eye.
Convicted sex offender Ezedi arrived in the UK in 2016 on the back of a lorry.
The following year, he was accused of grabbing the bottom of a woman without her consent, hauling her trousers down and exposing himself.
Ezedi pleaded guilty and received 45 weeks' jail, suspended for two years.
Despite twice being refused asylum, a reference from a Baptist minister was crucial in persuading a 2020 immigration tribunal that he had changed religion, allowing him to stay in Britain.
But an Iranian asylum seeker, 33, who was Ezedi’s colleague at a pizza shop in Tyneside, said the fugitive came from a very strict and devout family.
He added: “The idea he is now a Christian is a joke but he loves money and he loves his passport so maybe he did it for that reason.”
Separately, the 2017 victim - befriended by Ezedi but then pestered for sex - told The Sun: “If he’d been jailed for attacking me then surely he would have been deported. But the failings didn’t end there because someone from a church gave him a reference so he could gain asylum.
“Who in their right mind thought that a good idea when he was on the Sex Offender Register? He’s a danger to women. That’s obvious to everyone.”
Ezedi is said to have been deeply affected by the murder of his sister shot dead by armed robbers trying to steal the money he had sent home to his family in Afghanistan.
His friend from the pizza shop said: “After what happened he was crying for three weeks and he said he wanted revenge. He was so upset and very, very angry.
“When I heard what happened in London that came into my mind.”
There is no suggestion the Clapham victim has links to any crime.
Police are expected to give further details of a possible motive later on Wednesday but are not treating the revenge theory as an active line of inquiry at this stage.
Ezedi, from Newcastle, isn’t the father of the children in the attack and was in the capital visiting the victim, police believe.
The Diocese of Newcastle confirmed it had found “no evidence” of Ezedi “attending any of our churches, or being supported by our clergy in any asylum application”.
The debate over the clergy’s involvement in the asylum system comes after religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, vocalised their opposition to the Government’s plan to send migrants seeking sanctuary to Rwanda.
The most recent sighting of Ezedi is at 10.04pm when he passed the Unilever building and headed towards Victoria Embankment close to the Thames.
His bank card has not been used to travel on the Tube since last week Wednesday.
Metropolitan Police Commander Jon Savell said it “remains our belief that he is being helped by others” and the police probe will continue to “target more of Ezedi’s associates”.
A 22-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender is released on bail.
Detectives said there is no evidence to suggest Ezedi had made advance preparations to go on the run.
