Father’s horror as he realised son was killer

darrEN Osborne’s father has told of his horror upon discovering his estranged son was responsible for the Finsbury Park carnage.

John Osborne, 73, said he was ‘devastated’ when he realised his child had been behind the wheel of the van.

The former raF electrical engineer, who lives in the Home Counties, said he had ‘not been in darren’s life for 42 years’, after he left his mother.

But in his first public comments, he said he recognised Osborne in footage from the attack.

‘I am absolutely devastated by the whole bloody mess. It is terrible,’ Mr Osborne said.

‘In my civilian life I have lived abroad 90 per cent of the time, mostly in Middle East, arabic countries. I have a lot of arabic friends so you can imagine what this has done – it is horrible. My whole life has just turned upside down.’

The daily Mail can now reveal the full extent of the unemployed drug addict and alcoholic’s chaotic upbringing and 30-year history of violence.

Born in Singapore where his father was temporarily based, Osborne attended primary school in lincolnshire before his family settled in Somerset.

relatives described him as ‘never normal’ and a ‘loose cannon’ who was sent to borstal at the age of ten after stealing money from his blind grandfather. Osborne became notorious in Weston-super-Mare as a street-fighting thug.

He was regularly beaten up in pub fights and developed a limp after breaking his ankles in one confrontation. Friends said he also struggled to use one hand after severing tendons in two fingers in another incident.

His longest prison term was two years for assault.

an elderly former neighbour said Osborne smashed her cars with a brick after she stood up to his behaviour.

She said: ‘He was a drug addict, on everything. after he went for treatment he was a perfectly reasonable person, but he moved away to Wales then.

‘ He hadn’t lived with his mother for years and years because he gave her a lot of trouble. He was a problem child and caused a lot of unhappiness. as an adult, he was basically unemployable.’

By the time of the mosque attack, Osborne was sleeping on sofas as his wife Sarah andrews, 42, mother of his four children, struggled to kick him out of her life.

Over the previous two months he tried to kill himself at least twice, tightening cable ties around his neck while drunk in woodland and a cemetery.

His sister Nicola, 50, who remains in Weston-super-Mare with his mother, Christine, 72, said he was taking antidepressants and suggested he was mentally ill.

She said: ‘darren was never normal. He has been in and out of jail since he was a boy. He was sent to borstal when he was ten or 11. and he has never been right since.

‘He was sent away over a little bit of money. He never should have been sent to jail for that. and because he was sent away, it all went wrong from there.

‘He stole ten quid from our Grandpy. and it was our mum who called the police.

‘I suppose he just succumbed to temptation. Grandpy was old, about 90 and blind.

‘We used to come to Weston to see him and he had this wallet full of bank notes. and darren was tempted to take a £10 note out. He has been in jail so many times that I’ve lost track of them. Most of the time it has been for violent behaviour.

‘He has hit people, attacked their cars – all sorts. He has been sent down about five or six times that I know of. It could be more.

‘The longest he served in jail was two years. That was when he was living in Cardiff... about ten years ago. There was some bloke at his house and he wouldn’t leave.

‘and then the man said something about his daughter and he lost it. It’s always been in his nature to react, rather than to keep the peace.’

Mr Osborne added: ‘I haven’t been in darren’s life for 42 years. We had very intermittent contact until 30 years ago. Christine and I split up when he was six and it was decided then that I should not really have any further contact with the children.

‘Whether that was the right decision, I don’t really know. But obviously it was just shattering news, it is just horrible. I saw him on the television and recognised him.

‘I have no idea other than what I have read in the newspapers, I have absolutely no idea why – it is horrific.

‘I can’t comment on his motivation, I have not been part of that family for well over 30 years. This has turned my life upside down. We live quite close to a large Muslim community so

‘Darren was never normal’ ‘I saw him on the television’

we are worried about any hate crime problems.’

Commander dean Haydon, who led the police inquiry, said: ‘ I would describe darren Osborne as a troubled, vile, hate-fuelled individual with a history of violence, history of alcohol abuse and drug abuse, and a history of depression.

‘ you put the background together with his radicalisation path in the three to four weeks leading up to the attack, and we believe that’s why he attacked in the way he did.’

referring to Osborne’s family, he added: ‘None of them could foresee what he was about to do. There were no indicators, if you like, that he was going to hire a van and come to london and attack people from the community.’