ADEBOLAJO, ADEBOWALE FOUND GUILTY OVER MURDER IN LONDON!
Nigerian-British born Killers Bag Life Jail, 45 years…Fights Prison Guards, Hurls Abuse at Judge
*Shouts: ‘Allahu akbar in the dock’
*Wife of Deceased lament: ‘Jack, my son must endure images of his dead father’
BY IAN THOMAS/JUDICIAL REPORTER, UK
THEY are Nigerians born British citizens. Michael Adebolajo, 29 and Michael Adebowale, 22, raised in London culture, but decide to commit murder on the streets on Queen Elizabeth enclave. These British born extremists have been found guilty to have snuffed life out of Lee Rigby. Adebolajo was given a whole-life term, while Adebowale was jailed for life with a minimum of 45 years – meaning he could be back on the streets by the age of 67.
By the judgment, they have brought shame to themselves and members of their immediate families. Violence broke out in the Old Bailey dock this afternoon after Lee Rigby’s murderers began hurling abuse at the judge and fighting with prison guards during their sentencing.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, was given a whole-life term, while Michael Adebowale, 22, was jailed for life with a minimum of 45 years – meaning he could be back on the streets by the age of 67.
In extraordinary scenes, the two Muslim extremists yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘You (Britain) and America will never be safe’ during their sentencing at the court in Central London.
The British-born extremists mowed down Fusilier Rigby in a car before hacking him to death in the street in front of horrified onlookers near Woolwich Barracks in south-east London in May last year.
They both claimed that they were ‘soldiers of Allah’ and were motivated by the plight of Muslims abroad to carry out the killing, and have shown no remorse.
Shouts at Judge
After sentencing began, the two men shouted at Justice Sweeney in protest at his remarks and were pinned to the ground by several security guards and taken back to the cells.
The judge was forced to sentence the men in their absence after they were bundled out of the courtroom following their violent outburst.
The killers had to be pinned to the ground by nine security guards and Rigby’s family began sobbing as they watched the incident in horror, being handed tissues by court staff.
The relatives were forced to get up from their seats, cowering away from the violence which was happening just feet away, according to reporters in court.
Adebolajo shouted Allahu Akbhar, and Adebowale called out ‘that’s a lie’ and ‘it’s not a betrayal of Islam’ as the judge told them they had been radicalised.
The prisoners were dragged down to the cells – one head first – and could be heard banging on the ceilings below after being taken down as the judge condemned their ‘barbaric’ murder.
The judge said the pair’s behaviour was ‘sickening and pitiless’, and that Adebolajo had no hope of rehabilitation.
‘Your sickening and pitiless conduct was in stark contrast to the compassion and bravery shown by the various women at the scene who tended to Lee Rigby’s body and challenged what you had done and said.’
The struggle in the dock was triggered when the killers, both wearing Islamic robes, reacted angrily to comments that Mr Justice Sweeney made about their extremist beliefs.
He told them: ‘You each converted to Islam some years ago. Thereafter you were radicalised and each became an extremist, espousing views which, as has been said elsewhere, are a betrayal of Islam.’
Adebowale protested that this was a lie, ranting about America and Britain, and his accomplice joined in, screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ and hurling abuse at the prison guards who grappled him to the ground.
Both men were grabbed around the face as guards struggled to control them, and taken down to the cells. The soldier’s family were visibly distressed, and one relative needed medical treatment.
The judge made sure that the family were okay before starting his sentencing remarks again. He said that the murder also betrayed ‘the peaceful Muslim communities who give so much to our country’.
The judge said the men had carried out the killing to show ‘your extremist views, to murder a soldier in public in broad daylight and to do so in a way that would generate maximum media coverage including getting yourselves killed by armed officers who were bound to arrive at the scene’.
Describing how the pair mowed Rigby down at 30-40mph, he said: ‘He had done absolutely nothing to deserve what you went on to do to him.’
Justice Sweeney added: ‘It is no exaggeration to say that what the two of you did resulted in a bloodbath.’ Adebolajo tried to behead the soldier while Adebowale stabbed him in the chest.
‘You both gloried in what you had done,’ the judge told the court, and said it had a ‘severe and lasting impact’ on his loved ones.
There were also dramatic scenes outside the Old Bailey as roads near the court were closed and members of the public shouted at prison vans leaving the building.
A number of far right protesters had remained outside the court all day, with two sets of gallows, calling for the killers to face the death penalty.
Rigby’s family later said that Adebolajo and Adebowale had received the ‘right prison terms’, adding: ‘We feel satisfied that justice has been served for Lee.’
Earlier, the bereft widow of Rigby told the judge who sentenced his killers that their child will grow up seeing images of his dead father that ‘no son should have to endure’.
Rigby, 25, was ‘mutilated, almost decapitated and murdered’ by Adebowale and Adebolajo, who ambushed him outside his barracks in Woolwich, south-east London, on May 22 last year.
Rebecca Rigby said in her victim impact statement: ‘The one thing that overrides everything is that I know my son (Jack) will grow up and see images of his dad that no son should ever have to endure, and there is nothing I can do to change this.’
She spoke out after her husband’s family arrived at the Old Bailey wearing matching t-shirts demanding justice for the murdered soldier.
Police: Horror
Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who heads Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, said: ‘Today’s sentence reflects the true horror of their actions in taking this young man’s life in such a barbaric way.
‘Our thoughts remain with Lee’s loved ones, who have shown dignity and strength throughout the judicial process.’
Sue Hemming, head of special crime and counter terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, acknowledged that the soldier’s family had found the whole court process distressing.
She said: ‘Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale reveled in one of the most appalling terrorist murders I have seen whilst head of counter terrorism at the CPS.
‘Not only was the attack brutal and calculated, it was also designed to advance extremist views. As a soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby was targeted in a clear act of revenge, deliberately carried out in full view of members of the public for maximum impact.’
Wife of Deceased remarks
In her statement, read by the prosecution, Mrs Rigby went on: ‘I felt like I didn’t want to go on.
‘When you wave someone off you accept that there is a chance you will never see them again. You do not expect to see this on the streets of the UK. ‘Lee will never be forgotten. We will always love him and miss him every day.’
The court also heard part of a statement from the soldier’s stepfather, Ian Rigby.
He said: ‘After all he had been through in Afghanistan all Lee was doing was just walking through London. Just seeing on the television and seeing the violence of it you just can’t comprehend. You take it all in and it doesn’t click in your head, it is like being somewhere else.
‘You’re watching it without being actually there.’
Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said that the family’s lives had been devastated.
He said: ‘The scale of the impact on them of the nature of the murder of Lee Rigby in the circumstances made so public during the trial and after such a killing causing a son to pre-decease his parents and stepfather and leave those others who loved him without a husband or a soul mate is too obvious to set out in detail.
‘He had, as your lordship knows, a young son. All their lives have been irreparably changed for the worse.’
In December the two fanatics were found guilty of butchering the father-of-one but their sentencing was delayed until today after Strasbourg judges said that whole-life tariffs are unlawful.
But last week senior British judges defied the European Court of Human Rights ruling, leaving judge Justice Sweeney free to decide whether Adebolajo and Adebowlale should die behind bars.
Adebolajo’s QC told the court that sentencing his client to life without parole would make him a ‘martyr’, while Adebowale’s legal team said a whole-life term would be ‘inhuman’ for a man that age.
Rigby Family statement:
This is the full statement from the family of murdered soldier Lee Rigby following today’s sentencing of his killers:
‘The Rigby family welcomes the whole life and significant sentences that have been passed down on Lee’s killers.
‘We feel that no other sentence would have been acceptable and we would like to thank the judge and the courts for handing down what we believe to be the right prison terms.
‘We would also like to thank everyone who has supported us in the last nine months.
‘It has brought us a lot of comfort and we feel satisfied that justice has been served for Lee. It just remains to be said: rest in peace Lee.
‘We would now ask to be left to continue our grieving for him in private.’
