Lee Rigby murder: Adebolajo and Adebowale face sentence
Michael Adebolajo, left, and Michael Adebowale are being sentenced at the Old Bailey A judge at the Old Bailey is due to sentence the two men who murdered soldier Lee Rigby near Woolwich barracks in south-east London.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, ran over Fusilier Rigby with a car before hacking him to death in May last year.
Judge Mr Justice Sweeney has heard victim impact statements.
Fusilier Rigby's wife Rebecca said her young child will now have to see images "no son should have to endure".
Her statement was one of those from Fusilier Rigby's family, extracts of which were read out by prosecutor Richard Whittam QC.
She said about Army life: "When you wave someone off you accept that there is a chance you will never see them again. You do not expect to see this on the streets of the UK."
Ian Rigby, Fusilier Rigby's stepfather, said said the family's lives had been " irreparably changed for the worse".
He went on: "After all he'd been through in Afghanistan, all Lee was doing was walking through London. After seeing the television, you just can't comprehend it."
Adebolajo and Adebowale could face whole-life jail terms after a Court of Appeal ruling last week upheld judges' right to jail the most serious offenders in England and Wales for the rest of their lives.
However, counsel for Adebolajo, David Gottlieb, warned an indeterminate sentence "is likely to create a martyr".
Fusilier Lee Rigby was wearing a Help for Heroes hooded top when he was murdered Mr Gottlieb said Adebolajo is "not so depraved or wicked that he is incapable of redemption", saying the murder "shares the characteristics of a religiously aggravated crime".
He said Adebolajo intended to die and that he still believed he should be put to death.
Lee Rigby's stepfather Ian Rigby, his mother Lyn Rigby, and his sisters, Sara McClure and Chelsea Rigby, arrive at the Old Bailey Adebolajo had claimed he was a "soldier of Allah" and the killing was an act of war.
Counsel for Michael Adebowale, Abbas Lakha QC, told the court the case was "horrific" but was not a case "where the offending is so exceptionally high that Mr Adebowale must be kept in prison for his life".
He said: "The right and proper sentence is one which does leave open the possibility of release in the future. Any other sentence would be inhuman."
At the beginning of the hearing the defendants, both dressed in black, were asked to stand, although Adebolajo did not.
Fusilier Rigby, from Middleton, Greater Manchester, was murdered as he returned to his barracks in Woolwich, south-east London on 22 May 2013. He died of multiple cut and stab wounds.
Adebolajo and Adebowale drove into Fusilier Rigby at 30 to 40mph, before dragging him into the road and attacking him with knives and attempting to decapitate him with a meat cleaver.
No comments:
Post a Comment