Woolwich Murderers Found Guilty

Costas Pitas and Michael Holden
Reuters
December 19, 2013

MICHAEL-ADEBOLAJO2

Two British Muslim converts were found guilty of murder on Thursday for hacking a soldier to death in broad daylight on a London street in a gruesome killing that horrified the nation.

British spy chiefs are facing questions over whether they could have prevented the attack on Drummer Lee Rigby, charges that echo previous criticisms of the security services.

A jury at London’s Old Bailey criminal court took about 90 minutes to unanimously find Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, guilty of murdering Rigby, 25, an Afghan war veteran, near an army barracks in Woolwich on May 22.

The court heard they had driven around the area looking for a soldier and ran over Rigby, who was carrying a military backpack, then attacked his unconscious body with knives and a meat cleaver, trying to behead him.

They then dragged his corpse into the middle of the road where Adebolajo asked a bystander to video them, brandishing their weapons with their hands covered blood, as he calmly explained what he had done to the shock of startled passers-by.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we’ve killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers,” Adebolajo said minutes after murdering Rigby, who had a two-year-old son.

“He is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

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