FAR-RIGHT ATTACKER GUILTY OF MOSQUE MURDER
The hire van and forensics officers at the scene of the attack close to the mosque
MOSQUE murderer Darren Osborne was facing life in jail last night after he was convicted of driving a van into a group of Muslim men, killing one.
Police yesterday branded Osborne, 48, a “devious, vile, hate-filled” killer after it took jurors less than an hour to find him guilty of murder and attempted murder.
He hatched his plan after watching a drama about the Rochdale child sex ring scandal.
The heavy-drinking drug abuser was sickened by scenes in Three Girls showing Pakistani men grooming white British girls for sex.
Within a month of the BBC programme airing, he drove a hire van into a group of worshippers outside Finsbury Park Mosque in north London killing father Makram Ali.
The impact last June left 12 other men injured – two of them seriously.
Watching Three Girls was the trigger for Osborne’s radicalisation, a court heard.
He then turned to hate-filled propaganda pumped out by the English Defence League and Britain First.
In the final stages of his planning, he became a Twitter follower of EDL chief Tommy Robinson and Jayda Fransen of Britain First.
Although his behaviour changed, no one close to him had any idea what he was planning.
At the time of the killing he had split from his partner Sarah Andrews and was “sofa-surfing” at friends’ homes.
Ms Andrews said that Osborne had become obsessed with Muslims following the drama and was becoming brainwashed. With the benefit of hindsight she described him a “ticking time bomb”.
Osborne, who was once jailed for two years for violence, has a history of alcohol and cannabis abuse as well as mental problems.
Mr Ali, 51, who came to Britain from Bangladesh when he was 10, was 100 yards from his home when Osborne crashed into him.
His family described him as a “peace-loving, quiet, gentle” father and grandfather who disliked political discussion and had no enemies.
In the aftermath of the van attack, Osborne, a jobless father-of-four from Cardiff, was protected from an angry mob by a brave imam, Woolwich Crown Court was told.
When taken from the van, he told police: “I done my job.”
In court, Osborne tried to lie his way out of a life sentence by claiming the real killers were a mysterious pair called Dave and Terry Jones.
He insisted Dave drove the van into the crowd while he was in the passenger footwell taking off his trousers.
But jurors dismissed his claims, finding him guilty of murder and attempted murder.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb will sentence him today.
After the jury returned its verdict yesterday, the head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command Commander Dean Haydon said: “He has become radicalised within a period of three to four weeks.
“He certainly was not, as far as we can tell, interested in any extreme Right-wing or domestic extremism groups or individuals up until that stage.
“Family members saw that as an almost pattern of him changing his behaviour, and that was having an impact on him.
“They described him as a ticking time bomb.
“He was absolutely intent on targeting the Muslim community and using that van as a weapon to kill.”
Osborne’s defence was “completely fabricated at the very last moment”, said Commander Haydon. He added: “He is a devious, vile hate-filled individual.
“I would class him as a lone actor. Unlike the investigations into the other terrorist attacks in London and Manchester, we did not make a flurry of arrests following Osborne’s attack.
“This was because at no stage did we find any evidence that Osborne acted anything other than completely alone.”
Osborne claimed he plotted to assassinate Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan at a pro-Palestine rally last June – but had abandoned the plan due to the tight security.