Darren Osborne has been given a minimum 43-year life sentence after he drove a van into a crowd of Muslim worshippers
Finsbury Park terror attacker Darren Osborne has been jailed for at least 43 years for his ‘suicide mission’ van attack on a group of Muslim worshippers near a London mosque.
Osborne, 48, murdered Makram Ali and seriously injured 12 others when he ploughed into a crowd in Finsbury Park last June.
He was handed a life sentence today and will likely die in jail as he won’t be able to apply for parole until he is 91.
Victim Mr Ali’s daughter, Ruzina Akhtar, branded her father’s killer a ‘narrow-minded, heartless being’.
In a heartbreaking statement outside court, she said: ‘Our father, like the victims of most terrorism, was entirely innocent, which makes his death, in this violent way, all the more hurtful.
‘We cannot imagine the trauma he felt in his last few minutes but we choose to remember our father with happier thoughts.
‘He will never be forgotten, he will always stay in our hearts, his laughter will echo the walls of our home, his smile will be reflected in our eyes and his memory will be alive in our conversations.’
Ruzina Akhtar (left), the daughter of victim Makram Ali (right), branded her father’s killer ‘a narrow-minded, heartless being’. She said her father was a ‘peaceful and simple man with no bad thoughts for anyone’
Ms Akhtar, standing with her family, said outside court that her father was entirely innocent and they would remember him for his smile and laughter
In a victim impact statement read to the judge, Ms Akhtar had said: ‘The scene of the incident is near to our house. We walk past this most days, and are constantly reminded. The image of him lying there will always stay with me.’
She said her mother is now afraid to go out for fear she will be attacked, while Mr Ali’s five-year-old grandson wonders when he will play football with his grandfather again.
Ms Akhtar said of her father: Throughout his life he lived without any enemies. He never hurt or upset anyone. His life was taken in a cruel way by a very narrow minded, heartless being.’
Jailing Osborne, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: ‘This was a terrorist attack… Yours was a suicide mission. You expected to be shot dead by the police.’
She told the killer: ‘You have been convicted on overwhelming evidence by an intelligent British jury who saw through your pathetic list ditch attempt to deceive them by blaming someone else for your crimes.
She added: ‘The streets were busy with people of many races going about their normal lives.
‘The diversity of the group you tried to kill is striking – there were young people, old people, a group of deaf people.
‘But the reason you attacked them is that you identified them as Muslims from their mode of dress.’
The trial has seen shocking footage of the moment Osborne swerved his van into the crowd
Osborne has a long criminal record of 102 offences, including theft, burglary, fraud, assault, public disorder and drug offences.
He first appeared a court in his home town of Weston Super Mare aged 15 in 1984. Before the terror attack, he was last in court in 2014.
He had planned to drive into crowds attending a pro-Palestinian march inLondon in June last year, and he claimed he hoped to kill Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London mayor Sadiq Khan.
But road closures meant he couldn’t get near the march and, after driving around London looking for Muslim targets, he drove at a group of people outside the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park.
Father-of-six Mr Ali was being helped by others after he collapsed on the pavement when Osborne struck. He died after the van passed over him.
Witnesses said he shouted ‘I want to kill all Muslims’ as he jumped out the vehicle, and he blew kisses and taunted victims as he waited in the back of a police van
Osborne was detained thanks to a local Imam, Mohammed Mahmoud, who calmed angry crowds gathering around the attacker.
The out-of-work former painter-decorator has been accused of ‘playing it for laughs’ at his trial, where he claimed ‘a man called Dave’ was driving the van, but vanished ‘like magician Dynamo’.
The jury took less than an hour to see through his claims and he was convicted of murder and attempting murder yesterday, in a case which prosecutors must be seen as terrorism-related.
Victim’s devastated daughter says her family have to walk by the scene of her father’s death every day
Locals lay flowers near the scene of Mr Ali’s death last summer
In a victim impact statement, Mr Ali’s daughter Ruzina Akhtar explained how he left behind his wife, six children, and two grandchildren.
She said: ‘In the immediate aftermath to the incident my family and I found it to be a long, agonising and exhausting 48 hours.
‘We had to wait to formally identity my father’s body. In our hearts, we knew it was him that was involved, and that he was gone straight after the attack.
‘We found the delay in confirmation extremely difficult to deal with. We were all devastated.
‘The scene of the incident is near to our house. We walk past this most days, and are constantly reminded. The image of him lying there will always stay with me.
‘My mother now feels scared to sleep on her own. She also feels scared to be alone. She still sees my father around the house all the time.
‘He was very much a family man. He lived with his wife, children and grandchildren. He was with his family in his final moments, before he left the house. This is how he will be remembered.
‘I see my mother constantly having nightmares. This is agony to watch. I feel totally helpless. I would love to make things better for her, but I don’t know how.’
Pictured, a vigil held in Mr Ali’s memory after the terror attack last summer
Mrs Akhtar went on: ‘My father would take my five-year-old son to the park. They both loved this outing and time together. They would play football together.
‘My son is always asking where his granddad is, and why he cant go to the park and play. This is heartbreaking.
‘Everyday while waiting at the bus stop to go to work, I see the images and emotion of that night. I picture my father lying on the floor, not responding to our cries.
‘This agony, desperation and helpless can never be forgotten. Every day I question myself – was there something I could have done differently to help him? I don’t think these thoughts will ever leave me.
‘My mum is scared to go out in case she is attacked, because she is visibly Muslim and wears a head scarf. She worries about her safety.’
The victim’s daughter said her family have to pass the scene of the attack almost every day. Pictured: Locals at the scene after the attack
She added: ‘As the eldest child, I have had to share the responsibilities of making sure my siblings and my son were able to resume their normal lives. I also had to prepare myself emotionally and physically for going back to work.
‘As the eldest child, I feel the need to stay strong. It has taken immense strength for me to remain at the forefront. I can’t describe to you the pain that I held.’
She added: ‘My father will never be forgotten. He will always stay in our hearts. His laughter will echo the walls of our home, and his smile will be reflected in our eyes.
‘His memory will be alive in our conversations. My father was the most sincere and warmest person I know. He was full of life.
‘Throughout his life he lived without any enemies. He never hurt or upset anyone.
‘His life was taken in a cruel way by a very narrow-minded, heartless being.’
Anti-terror police have been shocked at how quickly the father-of-four turned from alcoholic out-of-work decorator into a man determined to kill as many as possible.
He spent the weeks before the attack obsessively reading neo-Nazi material online after setting up a Twitter account and following far-Right leaders Tommy Robinson and Jayda Fransen.
It emerged today that he searched Robinson’s name more than 30 times in less than two weeks in June. The trial heard he received general ’round-robin’ emails from former EDL leader Robinson and a similar message from Britain First deputy Fransen.
Osborne was known as a thug is his home town of Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, and had served two years for attacking a fellow drinker with a bicycle lock in 2005. He was also banned from Toys R Us after trying to steal Lego.
Relatives and locals said he was unpredictable and violent, but he never had strong political views until he watched BBC drama Three Girls, which was about Asian grooming gangs in Rochdale.
Osborne crashed the van he used in the attack into bollards and he was apprehended by locals
Osborne’s ex-partner, Sarah Andrews, told police: ‘That caused Darren to go onto the internet to research further. We may have watched a couple of those episodes back to back on catch-up.
She said he was soon ‘non stop’ on the internet, obsessively going over the perverse catalogue of extremist material it had to offer.
Ms Andrews added: ‘He started watching Tommy Robinson stuff on the internet. He had been reading Tommy Robinson posts on Twitter.
‘I think he was a ticking time bomb. I should have realised what was going on’.
Finsbury Park attacker has 102 offences to his name and a criminal record going back to when he was a teenager
Osborne was known as a thug in his hometown but nobody suspected he was capable of carrying out a terror attack
Finsbury Park killer Darren Osborne is a career criminal with a record spanning more than 30 years.
The unemployed decorator has appeared in court 33 times for a total of 102 offences, including assault, theft, burglary and fraud, a court heard today.
His first appearance was as a 15-year-old in December 1984 before Weston-super-Mare juvenile court.
His most recent, before carrying out his murderous rampage last June, was in 2014.
The ‘large part’ of the offences were for dishonesty, theft, burglary and fraud, the sentencing hearing was told.
Osborne has nine offences recorded against him for offences against the person, such as assault. He also has convictions for public disorder and drug offences.
During his teenage years he committed dishonesty and theft offences, as well as assault and public disorder, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
At the age of 17 he was sentenced to a month’s detention for dishonesty, driving and criminal damage.
In October 1989, aged 19, he was handed three months in a young offenders institution for two assault offences.
Osborne was ‘constantly before the courts’ in his early to mid-30s, the hearing was told today
His first drugs conviction – for possession of Class B amphetamines – was in January 1996, when he was handed a probation order.
In April 1997, at Bristol Crown Court, he was handed a 12-month probation order for three offences of assault occasioning ABH.
Osborne was jailed for five months in July 1998, aged 28, for assault occasioning ABH.
He was ‘constantly before the courts’ in his early to mid-30s, the sentencing hearing was told.
In April 2006, at Swindon Crown Court, aged 36, he was jailed for two years for wounding with intent to do GBH and criminal damage, and handed a extension period of 18 months.
Jonathan Rees QC, prosecuting, said: ‘There was a period of something like eight years where, relatively speaking, he was trouble free, save for a few relatively minor offences.’
His most recent conviction, aged 44, was in October 2014 for attempted theft, theft and shoplifting in South Wales, and he was handed a community order with an unpaid work requirement.