Woolwich attack was unexpected, “incomprehensible and frightening”

The verdict was never in doubt.

Bar the sheer brutality of it all, 90 per cent of the evidence was on camera

Fusilier Lee Rigby was the victim of a terrorist murder, deliberately run down, then butchered with a meat cleaver and a set of knives.

His killers had declared themselves “soldiers of Allah” and in one random, murderous sudden act they declared war on the British state.

The 25-year-old solider became the symbol of their enemy on 22 May this year.

Both Michael Adebolajo, whose preferred title is Mujahid Abu Hamza and Michael Adebowale, known as Ismail Ibn Abdullah are committed jihadists.

They tried to run a defence that what they did was an act of war, a military operation, and therefore murder on the streets of London as a breach of the Queens Peace did not apply to them.

This was rejected by the trial judge Mr Justice Sweeney.

The jury was simply left to muse for short time over the other charge… the attempted murder of a police officer, when the armed reponse team turned up and Adebolajo rushed at them brandishing his bloodstained meat cleaver while Adebolwale waved a rusty, unloaded pistol at them.

Both men argued the aim was martydom via a police bullet. Both were cleared of attempted murder today.

Under the radar

What drove these two men to suddenly decide to commit such a barbaric act in full public view is still unclear.

There is no lengthy timeline to this plot, and no evidence of a guiding hand presented in this case.

Father of six children, Adebolajo, had always maintained it was about vengeance – “an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth” – for the actions of British soldiers in Muslim countries.

He watched over and over again YouTube videos of British soldiers in Iraq.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick described the the killing as “incomprehensible and frightening”.

She said “there no evidence in the preceding days that these people were intending to do that, that other people knew about it, any long term planning or preparation – we may never know exactly what happened.”

The two had been well known to the security services for nearly a decade.

The police have handed over all the files on contact with the killers to the Intelligence and Security Committee of MPs investigating whether Lee Rigby’s death could have been prevented. For this reason Mi5 will not comment.

The report is due in January, maybe before the two are sentenced.

AC Dick says she has carried out a thorough review of the police’s role.

She said “the decisions we made were rational and reasonable, but if it appears something could have been done which might have prevented this happening then I will be the first to apologise to Lee’s family who have suffered the most terrible loss.”

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