LEE Rigby’s alleged killers circled the area near his barracks for an hour
before they targeted him, the Old Bailey heard today.
The blue Vauxhall Tigra used to run the soldier down was captured on CCTV
driving up and down Artillery Place in Woolwich, southeast London, from
1.30pm on May 22.
The court heard the accused pair, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale,
even bought a parking ticket half an hour before the killing.
A copy of the £1 ticket, which was due to expire at 2.53pm, was shown to the
jury.
But by that time the car had crashed into a road sign after allegedly being
used as a weapon to mow down Fusilier Rigby as he returned to his barracks
at 2.30pm.
The 25-year-old was then hacked to death with knives and a meat cleaver so
viciously he was almost decapitated before his lifeless body was dragged
into the middle of the road.
Today jurors were shown CCTV footage said to show the pair stalking the area
in their car before the murder.
Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, said it showed the movement of the defendants
in Artillery Place.
He said: “They go past the scene at 1.30pm. The vehicle carries along
Artillery Place, going alongside the barracks.”
He added around 1.50pm they are spotted again and said: “This is half an hour
before the scene of the murder.”
Fusilier Rigby’s widow Rebecca fled the courtroom in tears as grisly details
of the killing emerged in eyewitness statements read out by Mr Whittam.
Amanda Bailey’s statement described her shock at seeing the attack on the
soldier, who she said looked “like a young man coming home from college”.
She said: “The car sped up and went straight towards the young man. He didn’t
seem to mind the car or notice at all.”
After he was run over, she said that she thought he might be dead, adding: “I
could see that his eyes were still open but they looked frozen.
“He wasn’t moving or making any noise. I thought that he was dead or in shock.
I couldn’t see any visible injuries on him.”
Initially she thought that one of the attackers was reaching for his phone to
call an ambulance, but then realised he had a knife.
Ms Bailey described one of the men trying to decapitate Fusilier Rigby,
saying: “He was holding the cleaver in his right hand.
“He was using a lot of force to hack at the young man’s neck. The motion of
his arm was that he was raising it up and bringing it down.
“I was so shocked all I could do was sit there and stare and what happened, I
couldn’t believe what was going on.
“He was determined and he wasn’t going to stop. He didn’t care. It was broad
daylight and this man didn’t care.
“The whole incident took about two minutes, but I can’t be sure. It felt like
a lifetime.”
Electrician Thomas Seymour pulled up in his van in during the attack.
Describing Fusilier Rigby’s body, he said: “I thought he looked black but
after a short while I realised this was because he was covered in blood.”
Mr Seymour said he saw one of the men stab the soldier with “forceful” actions
betewen the chest and belly button “10 or 20 times” while the other man was
“hacking the victim’s head.”
He went on: “He looked at first like he was hitting or slapping him across the
head.
“I believed he was trying to cut the victim’s head off by the way he was
attacking him. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
Mr Seymour said he drove away fearing he would be attacked next, but saw the
men continue stabbing the body in his wing mirror.
Gill Hucks said in her statement she saw a two men taking it in turns to stab
the soldier in “what I can only describe as a horrific frenzied attack on
the man on the floor by two knife-wielding crazy men.”
She continued: “I could not believe that they were doing such a thing in the
middle of the afternoon in a busy street.”
Ms Hucks said that she became hysterical at what had happened, adding: “I had
almost totally lost control and was screaming. I was shaking and very upset.”
She said she saw one of the men “playing to the cameras” as people filmed the
aftermath of the attack on their mobile phones.
Adebolajo, of Romford, east London, and Adebowale, 22, from Greenwich, south
east London, deny murdering Fusilier Rigby, attempting to murder a police
officer and conspiracy to murder a police officer.
Both men have already pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to
cause fear of violence.
The trial continues.