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As it happenedended1517509843

Finsbury Park attack trial - as it happened: Darren Osborne faces life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder

Father-of-four from Cardiff had denied the offences

Lizzie Dearden
Home Affairs Correspondent
Thursday 01 February 2018 10:41 GMT
(Rex)

The Finsbury Park terror attacker faces life imprisonment of being convicted of murder and attempted murder.

A jury took just under an hour to reach the unanimous verdicts, disregarding Darren Osborne’s unsubstantiated claim another man ploughed a van into Muslim worshippers leaving mosques after Ramadan prayers.

The atrocity, shortly after midnight on 19 June, killed one man and injured nine other victims.

Justice Cheema-Grubb said she would sentence Mr Osborne on Friday morning.

Thanking the jury for their service, she added: "These verdicts have an impact far wider than inside this courtroom...they are one of hte most important things you have done in your lives."

Scroll down to read how we covered today's proceedings.

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Prosecutors had accused Mr Osborne of conjuring his unexpected defence “out of thin air” and urged jurors to dismiss the “frankly absurd” account on Wednesday.

The father-of-four took to the stand for a second day to tell Woolwich Crown Court the deadly attack was carried out by a man called Dave, who was not seen by witnesses or recorded on CCTV.

“He’s like Dynamo, he’s an illusion, an illusionist, he can make himself vanish perhaps, I don't know,” Mr Osborne told the jury.

The 48-year-old claims he, Dave and another man called Terry Jones planned to attack a pro-Palestinian march in London, hoping Jeremy Corbyn would attend, but were thwarted by road closures.

Mr Osborne told the court that he “wasn’t interested” in finding a new target after driving from Cardiff on 18 June and did not plan to kill Muslims in Finsbury Park, instead believing they were going to a pub.

He claimed that Dave jumped into the van in the four seconds it was not filmed on CCTV and ploughed it into a group of Muslim worshippers helping a collapsed man.

Asking how Dave allegedly took over while the van was moving at speed, Mr Osborne said he put it in neutral and “shimmied over real quick”.

He had “no answer” to a series of questions on why he supposedly decided to change his trousers in the footwell and did not pull over, adding: “We're a peculiar bunch of guys.”

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said the defendant’s account was a “desperate attempt” to evade responsibility.

Closing the prosecution’s case, Mr Rees said the involvement of Dave and Terry was a “fabrication” the defendant cobbled together after hearing days of evidence against him.

Body-worn camera footage shows Mr Osborne telling police he was the van’s driver, initially claiming he lost control before later launching into a rant about Muslims, saying: “At least I had a proper go.”

A police officer who interviewed the suspect in hospital recorded him saying he was “flying solo” and that no-one else was involved in the attack.

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The judge says the case has "come down to a fairly narrow dispute" over who was behind the wheel of the van when it hit Makram Ali and others, and what Mr Osborne knew of the plan.

"The central question for you to decide is whether he might be telling the truth about that," she adds.

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:00
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Those were the legal directions, and the judge is now summarising the evidence heard in the case.

She says his partner, Sarah Andrews, said he was a "loner and has always been a very unpredictable man".

Ms Andrews said they had been growing apart for several years and that he had become a functioning alcoholic and was being treated for depression.

In the weeks before the attack, he twice threatened to hang himself

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:06
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The judge says the defendant's partner did not consider him racist until he watched the drama Three Girls in May and started online research including "material put on the internet by Tommy Robinson, the ex-leader of the EDL".

"Ms Andrews thought he was so heavily influenced by what he had seen there that he became brainwashed," the judge says.

"His own daughter tried to reason with him but he was so derogatory about Muslims that she stopped bringing her Muslim schoolfriends home."

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:09
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The judge is going through the timeline of evidence previously given to the court.

She says Mr Osborne received a "direct message from Jayda Fransen" shortly after joining Twitter on 3 June.

The London Bridge attack struck later in the day and in the early hours he did a Google search for Jayda Fransen and started reading her tweets and Britain First articles.

Later in the day Mr Osborne searched for information on leader Paul Golding and then read more  material from Britain First

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:15
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The judge is going through evidence alleging that Mr Osborne on 6 June viewed articles on Muslims supposedly celebrating terror attacks in London, then over the following days searched for subjects including Rochdale grooming, Sadiq Khan and the death penalty.

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:16
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The judge says a messages "from Tommy Robinson..appeared to be circulars" on 9 June and 14 June.

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:17
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The judge is going through evidence from police including graphics and CCTV stills, saying none of it has been disputed.

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:19
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Justice Cheema-Grubb is taking the jury through the chronology of 18 June, when Mr Osborne drove from Cardiff to London.

He approached the Al-Quds Day march in the city centre but found the surrounding roads closed, then drove to south London and approached passers-by asking for directions.

Later he was seen asking people for directions to Finsbury Park

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:46
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The judge is taking the jury through CCTV stills showing Mr Osborne walking around Finsbury Park after briefly parking his van - buying a drink before returning to the vehicle.

He appears to urinate with the driver's door open before urinating behind the door and then sitting for a while before pulling off

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:48
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"At some point afterwards" Mr Osborne claims Dave got in the moving van as it passed through a tunnel.

The judge recalls a police officer was recalled to provide an additional graphics bundle after the new defence statement was submitted on Friday.

Lizzie Dearden1 February 2018 12:50

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