Finsbury Park attacker’s vile racist rant against Muslims minutes after murdering dad-of-six in mosque rampage
A JURY took less than an hour to find the Finsbury Park attacker guilty of murder today after he fatally rammed a car into a crowd outside a mosque.
Darren Osborne was radicalised just weeks before he unleashed the rampage, with the loner caught on police body cam ranting about the twin towers attack moments after the fatal crash.
The unemployed dad-of-four from Cardiff had previously told the court he wanted to “cause as much damage as possible” but later pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming a man called Dave had been responsible for ramming the car into crowds, killing 51-year-old Makram Ali.
Witnesses said loner Osborne shouted “I want to kill all Muslims” as he jumped out of the car in the wake of the attack in June last year.
He was then heard ranting at the back of the police van, referring to the September 11 attacks, saying: “The towers went up in flames, didn’t they. And they all start marching down the f***ing street.”
The jury in Woolwich Crown Court today found him guilty of murder and attempted murder, not accepting his claim that he had merely hidden in the footwell of the car.
The murderer had told the court: “I wasn’t interested just in getting one or two.
“If I was going to do it I was going to do it proper – cause as much damage as possible.”
Osborne claimed yesterday that a “guy called Dave Jones” was really behind the attack, which injured nine people, an eleventh hour defence which the prosecution slammed as being conjured out “of thin air.”
But witnesses recalled Osborne saying: “I’ve done my job, you can kill me now” and “at least I had a proper go” to members of the public in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
He was just 100 yards from his home at the time of the attack.
Chilling CCTV footage played in court during the nine day trial showed the moment he drove the van into the group, as one witness said he asked him “where the nearest mosque was.”
Osborne’s sudden defence was also rejected, with a second man not appearing on any CCTV footage that captured the June 19 attack outside the Finsbury Park mosque.
Osborne told the court: “He’s like Dynamo, an illusionist. He can make himself vanish, perhaps. I don’t know.”
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees said: “The real truth is that none of this happened.
“You were the only person in the van and all of this is just a desperate attempt to place Dave in the driver’s seat.”
Osborne had also admitted to plotting to kill Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan at a pro-Palestine rally last June, before abandoning the plot due to road closures.
A note written by the killer, in which he complained about terrorism, was found in the back of the van.
His partner Sarah Andrews told the court he had become “obsessed with Muslims” after watching the BBC drama Three Girls in May, about the abuse of white girls by grooming gangs in Rochdale.
Cops said the man then began to research extreme right-wing groups.
Commander Dean Haydon, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, today described Osborne as a “lone wolf”.
He said: “From the very outset of our investigation we found no evidence that Osborne was acting anything other than alone.
“It’s clear that Osborne was the only person to get out the van following the attack.”
Osborne, who had not worked for ten years, also followed Tommy Robinson and Jayda Fransen on Twitter, as well as the EDL and Britain First.
The dad-of-four had been driving around London looking for a target before targeting worshippers leaving a mosque and an Islamic centre after Ramadan prayers.
A crowd had gathered around Ali, who had collapsed in a sidestreet and, Osborne ploughed into them, killing Ali and injuring 12 others, several of whom suffered broken bones, including two who suffered life-changing injuries.
Crashing into bollards at the end of the street, he tried to escape on foot but was floored by witnesses.
A local imam prevented him from being badly beaten up as the crowd surrounded him.
A handwritten note found in the van read: “Why are their terrorists on our streets today?
“Don’t people get it? This is happening up and down our green and pleasant land.
“Islam’s ideology doesn’t belong here and neither does sharia law.”
The Crown Prosecution Service said Osborne “planned and carried out this attack because of his hatred of Muslims”.
“He later invented an unconvincing story to counter the overwhelming weight of evidence,” said Sue Hemming from the state prosecutors.
“He must now face the consequences of his actions.”
The widower of murdered MP Jo Cox called on Twitter for “hate preachers” from the far right to be hunted down.
Brendan Cox said: “When Islamists commit acts of terror we rightly hunt down the hate preachers who inspired them. We should do the same for the far right.”
Survivors of the attack are still fighting for compensation after being left severely physically and mentally injured, according to their lawyer.
Dushal Mehta, a lawyer at Fieldfisher, said: “We continue to work with the insurers of the van used as a weapon by Osborne to provide vital medical rehabilitation.
“But the mental scares suffered by the whole community are much more difficult to repair.”
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