The Finsbury Park attacker Darren Osborne, 48, has been sentenced to life in prison at Woolwich Crown Court with a minimum term of 43 years.
Osborne was sentenced to multiple whole-life terms for the premeditated van attack in Finsbury Park last June, that killed 51-year-old Makram Ali and injured 12 others.
Osborne, from Cardiff, was found guilty of murder and attempted murder at Woolwich Crown court yesterday after he drove a van into a crowd of Muslims outside a mosque last June.
In a statement read to the court by Jonathon Rees, QC, Makram Ali’s daughter Rosina Akhtar, said her father had been killed “in a cruel way by a very narrow-minded, heartless being”.
Speaking outside the court, Akhtar said: “We cannot imagine the trauma he felt in his last few minutes, but we choose to remember our father with happier thoughts, he will never be forgotten, he will always stay in our hearts.”
"We cannot imagine the trauma he felt in his last few minutes, but we choose to remember our father with happier thoughts" – says the daughter of Makram Ali, who was killed in the Finsbury Park terror attack https://t.co/ArkXo1xiRi pic.twitter.com/PuXb5ZVkqv
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 2, 2018
The prosecution described the attack as targeted, stating that Osborne ploughed into the group because of their traditional Muslim dress.
The court heard that he rented a van during the month of Ramadan with intent to kill as many Muslims as possible.
During the sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Osborne: “This was a terrorist attack… In short you allowed your mind to be poisoned by those who claimed to be leaders.”
Speaking to the BBC, Commander Dean Haydon from the Metropolitan Police described the attack as “evil and cowardly”, stating that those injured “could suffer from health issues for the rest of their lives”.
Following the sentencing, Brendan Cox, widower of Jo Cox, took to Twitter to send his condolences to the victims.
Thinking of all those injured and the bereaved family today. Hate won’t win but it leaves a huge impact on those caught up. https://t.co/WzutBjIb1i
— Brendan Cox (@MrBrendanCox) February 1, 2018
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said his thoughts remain with victim Makram Ali’s family.
“My thoughts today have been with the family of Makram. I went to his funeral and he was a husband who was loved and a father who was loved – they’ve lost him because of the actions of this terrorist.
“I think we need to think about how it is possible for somebody to be radicalised by extremists, whether it’s the far-right, or those who are inspired by so-called Daesh, or so-called Islamist groups, we need to make sure we root out those extremists that are grooming and radicalising people to embark on the road to terrorism.”
The court heard that Osborne had been radicalised after following EDL leader Tommy Robinson and far-right organisations such as Britain First online.
He had also been watching the BBC drama Three Girls based on the Rochdale child abuse scandal.
After the attack, police found a letter written by Osborne, describing Muslims as “rapists” and “feral”.
Osborne had previously been before the court on 33 occasions for 102 offences, including assaults and burglaries.