UK Trial Of Lee Rigby: Mr Adebolajo claimed he did it for ‘his God’

One of the men accused of the “cowardly and callous” murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby claimed that he did it for his God, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, were shot and wounded by police minutes after allegedly running the soldier down in a car and hacking him to death in Woolwich, South London, six months ago.

 

The court was told that after the killing, Mr Adebolajo claimed political and religious justification. As paramedics treated his wounds, he said: “Your Government is all wrong. I did it for my God. I wish the bullets had killed me.”

 

On the opening day of the trial, a jury was shown closed-circuit television footage of the minutes before and after the killing. Some members of Fusilier Rigby’s family left court before scenes showing the defendants’ Vauxhall Tigra veering across the road and into the soldier were screened. Fusilier Rigby, 25, was thrown on to the bonnet as the car careered on to the pavement.

 

Richard Whittam, QC, for the prosecution, said that Mr Adebolajo and Mr Adebowale got out of the car, armed with knives and a meat cleaver. One began trying to decapitate the soldier while the other inflicted multiple stab wounds to his body, he said.

 

It is thought that Fusilier Rigby was knocked unconscious by the collision, but a post-mortem examination concluded that his death had been caused by multiple wounds.

 

The prosecution claims that after being attacked out of sight of the cameras, the soldier’s body was hauled into the road. Bystanders tried to comfort and tend to him while the two men stood wielding their weapons.

 

At the arrival of the first police armed response vehicle, Mr Adebolajo rushed forward, armed with knives. Officers fired on him, hitting him when he was only feet from the police car door. Mr Adebowale then appeared, brandishing a firearm, and was also shot .

 

Mr Whittam said that the alleged killers had “wanted members of the public to see their barbarous acts. They had committed a cowardly and callous murder by deliberately attacking an unarmed man from behind using a vehicle as a weapon and then they murdered him and mutilated his body.”

 

Mr Adebolajo and Mr Adebowale deny the murder of Fusilier Rigby, conspiracy to murder a police officer and the attempted murder of a police officer. The trial continues.

 

From THE TIMES