Curricula - Knowledge - Navigation
Judiciary of england and wales: woolwich crown court: r v xx, 02 february 2018.
  • 2017 - 2018
  • United Kingdom
Identification of the Source

Judiciary of England and Wales: Woolwich Crown Court: R v XX - 02 February 2018.

Keywords
Darren Osborne, Far Right, Finsbury Park Mosque, Anti-Islam
Description
Read More
Type of Crime
Read More
Modus Operandi

The primary modus operandi was the use of a large heavy vehicle to drive onto the crowded pavement outside a mosque, to plough into and kill and injure as many Islamic worshipers as possible. This modus operandi was copied from Islamic extremist attacks that happened across Europe in the UK, France and Germany for example. Osborne's attack was believed to be a revenge attack in an 'eye for an eye' style.
Osborne had been radicalised in his depressive and alcohol abuse/unemployed state significantly over the internet, he had created a twitter profile that did not tweet anything but instead followed lots of far-right groups and leaders, through this he had access to viewing the disseminated far right propaganda, which was particularly anti-Islamic.

People involved

XX, born in Singapore, but raised in Weston-Super-Mare, South East England. Current residence prior to the attack was Cardiff, Wales. (Perpetrator)
Makram Ali, Born on XX in Bangladesh. Resided in North London prior to his murder. (Victim)

Criminal History

XX had a long criminal history of both petty and serious crimes as well as a documented history of alcohol abuse. Prior to his arrest for the Finnsbury Park attack, Osborne had been unemployed for ten years. He was described by people in his local community and housing street as a 'loner' as having violent tendencies and vocal outbursts of offensive and racist language.
Osborne had 102 criminal convictions acquired from his youth onwards. They included offences of public disorder and violence, including assaulting a police officer. Osborne had experienced youth custody and sentences of imprisonment. Over the years he had been given access to support services to help him reform with probation and community rehabilitation orders. However, XX repeatedly breached these orders. Aged 36 Osborne received an extended sentence for GBH with intent to cause serious bodily harm, maim or even kill.
His partner XX who described he as a ‘ticking time bomb” challenged his views, his own daughter who has Muslim school friends argued with he and, in the end stopped bringing her friend’s home, Sapper Callum Spence, a serving soldier challenged he when he were shouting out things like, All Muslims are terrorists, I'm going to kill all the Muslims in the pub the night before he set off for London.

Influential and/or vulnerable Groups

The case of XX is one of two very high-profile extreme-right terrorist style attacks and murders that the UK has seen in the past five years. In a similar manner to the other Far Right murderer of Jo Cox: XX. XX demonstrated a sustained period of unemployment and a history of mental health problems, furthermore both of them appeared to have acted in relative isolation to specific groups and other individuals and under investigation had viewed large quantities of extreme right propaganda over the internet.
Therefore, it may be argued that XX was a member of a vulnerable group, due to a long-term history of criminal acts and failed rehabilitation, but most noticeably from the mental health problems of depression, alongside alcohol abuse, it may be considered that additionally his lack of employment could be an exacerbating factor is in his radicalisation.