Man radicalised by TV drama guilty of London mosque attack

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Man radicalised by TV drama guilty of London mosque attack

Updated

London: A man who developed a hatred of Muslims after watching a TV drama about child sex crimes involving Asian men was found guilty on Thursday of ploughing a van into worshippers outside a north London Mosque weeks later, killing one.

Darren Osborne, 48, drove the hired vehicle into a group of Muslims gathered around father-of-six Makram Ali, 51, who had collapsed near his home after leaving late-night Ramadan prayers in Finsbury Park.

A police officer talks to local people at Finsbury Park after the attack.

A police officer talks to local people at Finsbury Park after the attack. Credit: AP

He killed Ali and injured 12 others, two seriously. At Woolwich Crown Court, Osborne was found guilty of murder and attempted murder, with police and prosecutors saying it was an act of terrorism.

It was the fourth incident blamed on terrorists in Britain in the space of three months and it followed three Islamist attacks.

Osborne, who had not previously expressed far-right views, developed an obsession with Muslims after watching the BBC programme Three Girls, a drama broadcast last May about events in Rochdale, northern England, where white girls were abused by gangs of mainly British Pakistani men.

This hatred was subsequently fuelled by online research into extreme right-wing figures and groups, police said.

Osborne will be sentenced on Friday.

The court heard evidence suggesting Osborne had been radicalized relatively quickly. According to Osborne's partner, Sarah Andrews, his Islamophobic views developed in the weeks before the attack, as he became convinced that not enough was being done to combat Islamic extremism.

She said after Osborne watched Three Girls, he then dived into the right-wing media sphere and "seemed brainwashed" by his immersion in that world. Devices seized by police showed internet searches for a variety of such sites, including that of the English Defence League, a far-right anti-Muslim group.

Osborne was also found to have received an automated direct message on Twitter from Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First, another far-right organization. Some of the group's videos were retweeted by President Donald Trump last year in an episode that caused outrage in Britain.

Reuters, New York TImes

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