Finsbury Park Van Attack Suspect Darren Osborne ‘Received Email Linked To Tommy Robinson'

'It is a nation built on hatred,' the email said.
|

The man accused of carrying out a terrorist attack in Finsbury Park received an email warning of the rise of Islam from an account linked to English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson days before he allegedly ran down worshippers in a van.

Darren Osborne, of Glyn Rhosyn in Cardiff, deliberately mowed down the group in north London shortly after 12.15am on 19 June last year, prosecutors have alleged.

The court heard that several searches for Britain First leader Paul Golding, his deputy Jayda Fransen, and Robinson were carried out on two iPhones and iPads seized from the family home just hours after the London Bridge terror attack. Eight people died in the June knife and van atrocity, which came a few weeks after 22 died when Salman Abedi bombed the Manchester Arena in May.

Open Image Modal
A court artist sketch of Darren Osborne
PA Archive/PA Images

Analysis of the three devices also revealed searches about bringing back capital punishment and about Islamic State supporters said to be celebrating the Manchester attack.

Internet history from the device showed that Infowars, described as a “conspiracy theorist and fake news website” was also accessed.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday Osborne had received an email warning of the rise of Islam from an account linked to Robinson days earlier.

Open Image Modal
English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson
PA Archive/PA Images

An email message from Robinson’s account was captured in a screenshot on one device on June 9, Rees said.

It read: “What Salman Abedi did is not the beginning and it won’t be the end.

“There is a nation within a nation forming just beneath the surface of the UK.

“It is a nation built on hatred, on violence and on Islam.”

The QC said it was not suggested the message was sent directly from  Robinson.

Just over a week later, Osborne, 48, is accused of travelling to London and deliberately mowing down Makram Ali, 51, and nine other people on a crowded pavement in the Finsbury Park area.

Mr Rees told the jury on Monday that the “act of extreme violence” was considered by the prosecution to be a terrorist attack.

His estranged partner Sarah Andrews described him as a “total loner” who became “brainwashed” in a matter of weeks after watching a television drama about the Rochdale grooming sex scandal.

He had become “obsessed” with Muslims in the weeks before the attack after watching BBC programme Three Girls, based on testimony from victims of the Rochdale grooming gangs, she said.

Osborne denies the murder of Mr Ali and attempted murder of “persons at the junction of Seven Sisters Road and Whadcoat Street, London”.