Finsbury Park terrorist receives life sentence for Ramadan van attack outside mosque

Darren Osborne, the terrorist behind the Finsbury Park van attack, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 43 years on Friday after being found guilty of murder and attempted murder in London.

Osborne, 48, was found guilty of murdering Makram Ali, and the attempted murder of others, after driving a rented van into a crowd outside the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park on June 19 last year.

The attack occurred just after midnight, when worshippers were gathered outside the mosque after leaving nightly prayers during the month of Ramadan.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court, said Osborne had planned “a suicide mission” and expected to be shot dead by the police during his attack. She said his choice to target a particular group wearing traditional Islamic dress reflected his “ideology of hate towards Muslims.”

Earlier in the trial, customers and staff at a pub Osborne spent time at two days before the attack described how the attacker ranted that he was “going to kill Muslims” who were “getting together and marching for ISIS” the following day.

The court also heard that Osborne had originally wanted to kill Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and London mayor Sadiq Khan, along with others attending the annual Al-Quds Day pro-Palestinian march in the capital. Osborne described being “thwarted” by road blocks and security, before deciding to attack a mosque in Finsbury Park as it was inside Corbyn’s constituency.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Osborne had been “rapidly radicalised over the internet by those determined to spread hatred of Muslims”, with his use of Twitter exposing him to “racists and anti-Islamic ideology” and allowing his mind to “poisoned by those who claimed to be leaders”.

Osborne showed no remorse in court, inventing a story that “a guy called Dave” was actually driving the van. The prosecution dismissed Osborne’s defence as “absurd” and a “fabrication”.

The jury took only an hour on Thursday to unanimously convict Osborne of the attack. On Friday, the judge sentenced Osborne to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 43 years for the incident, which she described clearly as “a terrorist attack”.