Michael Adebowale ‘a lovely boy who was radicalised’

Magdalene Edwards, who lives in Greenwich, south east London, said she first noticed Michael Adebowale in Muslim dress a year ago and asked if he had converted to Islam.

She said: “I’m aware that there’s some that ride on the coat tails of Islam and they’re really not serving their cause. This example would tell you that this doesn’t serve Islam’s cause…”

Ms Edwards added that extremists looking to radicalise the young “are only looking for the weak ones, the ones that have no support, so we have a duty as parents to keep an eye on those children”.

Michael Adebowale, 22, and Michael Adebolajo, 28, are suspected of killing Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south east London, on Wednesday.

Ms Edwards said Michael Adebowale was a “lovely boy” who “had the makings of a fine young man”, a “solitary” person who was either on his own or with his mother.

But she added: “He was angry at a lot of things, like a lot of young people are.”