Family of Finsbury Park terror attack victim tell of heartbreak as killer Darren Osborne is jailed for 43 years
THE family of a Finsbury Park victim who lost his life when a radicalised loner ploughed a van into a group of Muslims have told of their heartbreak.
Darren Osborne, 48, received the life sentence for deliberately mowing down worshippers outside two mosques in north London "with a terrorist motive" shortly after 12.15am on June 19 last year.
During the attack, he killed 51-year-old Makram Ali and injured 12 others.
A jury of eight women and four men took one hour to convict the father-of-four, who was seen smiling and blowing a kiss to angry bystanders in the moments after the terror attack, of murder and attempted murder.
Osborne, who had denied both charges, was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court this morning.
While being led away, he could be heard saying: "God bless you judge."
Mr Ali's family delivered an emotional statement outside court after the sentencing.
It said: "The last few months have been very hard for our family as we have tried to adjust to life without our father. It was particularly hard to have to sit in court and listen to Darren Osborne deny he had done anything wrong.
"We are very pleased with the guilty verdict.
"Before our father left the house that night he had spent the evening with his family, it was here where he felt most comfortable. He was such a peaceful and simple man. He had no bad thoughts for anyone.
"Our father, like the victims of most terrorism, was entirely innocent, which makes his death in this violent way even more hurtful.
"We cannot imagine the trauma which he felt in his last few minutes but we chose to remember our father with happier thoughts. He will never be forgotten. He will always be in our hearts, his laughter echo the walls of our home, his smile reflected eyes, and his memory alive in our conversations."
Part way through the trial Osborne, from Glyn Rhosyn in Cardiff, suddenly denied he had been driving the van at the moment of impact, an 11th hour defence the prosecution dismissed as being conjured "out of thin air".
The attacker said he had no idea Dave - one of his two made-up accomplices - intended to smash into a group of pedestrians, and believed they were on their way to a pub to meet a third co-conspirator, Terry.
Jurors agreed with prosecutors who dubbed his increasingly improbable version of events a "total fabrication".
Osborne's account was also dubbed "frankly absurd".
During the nine-day trial Osborne told the court he had wanted to kill senior Labour figures including leader Jeremy Corbyn.
He also claimed he wanted to kill London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
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He had also plotted to murder Rochdale Labour councillor Aftab Hussain but called it off because he wanted "more casualties".
A note written by Osborne - which complained about terrorism, the Rotherham child sex scandal, and branded Mr Corbyn a "terrorist sympathiser" - was found in the cab of the van.
Osborne, a "total loner", had become obsessed with Muslims after watching BBC drama Three Girls in May last year and was angered by what he deemed as inaction following a string of UK terror attacks, his estranged partner Sarah Andrews said.
HERO IMAN SAVED KILLER
HERO imam Mohammed Mahmoud stopped the furious crowd from tearing killer Osborne apart after the horrifying van attack.
Mr Mahmoud led two of his clergy to form a protective ring around the maniac until the police arrived.
The reluctant hero, 31, told Woolwich crown court: “He wasn’t a threat and therefore he should answer for his crime in a court, which he is doing now, and not in a court in the streets.”
Shortly after the attack he said: “The true heroes are those who arrived on the scene right at the start and those in the hospital right now suffering with terrible injuries.”
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