The man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman in Wednesday’s deadly assault outside  parliament has been identified by police as 52-year-old former convict Khalid Masood. Known by “a number of aliases”, London’s Metropolitan Police said he had been convicted for a string of offences but none of them terror-related. Born on Christmas Day 1964 in Kent in southeast England, Masood had been living in the West Midlands where armed police have staged several raids since the attack, storming properties in Birmingham. The police confirmed he was a British citizen. He was brought up by a single parent in the town of Rye, on the southern English coast, according to The Times. Over the course of two decades, Masood chalked up a range of convictions for assault, grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences, police said, with the incidents taking place between 1983 and 2003. Prime Minister Theresa May said he was once investigated by the intelligence service MI5. But Masood had never been convicted of terrorism offences and “was not the subject of any investigations,” the police said, noting there was “no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack”. At 52, his age has been highlighted by commentators as unusual, with most extremists behind similar attacks far younger. Although the police believe Masood acted alone, the Islamic State group claimed he was one of its “soldiers” acting on a call to target countries fighting the militants in Iraq and Syria.Masood rented the car used in the attack from the Solihull branch of Enterprise, on the outskirts of Birmingham, the company confirmed in a statement. According to the BBC, he told the car rental company that he was a teacher. A spokeswoman for the education ministry said Masood was not a qualified teacher and had therefore not taught in any state schools.  The Sun tabloid said Masood stayed in a hotel on the outskirts of Brighton on the night before the attack.