The terror trial of Anjem Choudary exposed deep and disturbing links between the Islamic hate preacher and the killers of Lee Rigby, MailOnline can reveal.
The Jihadi hate preacher was earlier this week found guilty of directing banned Islamist group al-Muhajiroun and now faces a life sentence.
But in the lead-up to Tuesday’s guilty verdicts, the trial at Woolwich Crown Court for the first time exposed the extent of Choudary’s connection to the execution of the Fusilier – including even presiding over one murderer’s wedding.
Lee was run down in the street as he returned to Woolwich Barracks from duty at the Tower of London on May 22 2013 by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale – who then attacked and mutilated his body on camera.
Now we can reveal that Choudary’s connections to Adebolajo run so deep that he was even present when he first converted to Islam.
The terror trial of Anjem Choudary exposed deep and disturbing links between the Islamic hate preacher and the killers of Lee Rigby
Choudary was present when Adebolajo converted to Islam at the age of 19 – after being groomed by proscribed group al-Muhajiroun – and presided over his wedding
Adebolajo, now 30, had adopted the name ‘Mujahid’, or holy warrior, after that conversion at the age of 19, which took place after he was groomed by al-Muhajiroun.
Choudary’s trial exposed this and his many other links with the Rigby case – including a conversation in which he spoke almost wistfully about the killing.
On July 16 last year, a Canadian associate called Khalid Hussein messaged Choudary as he prepared to fly to London to visit the preacher.
The preacher told him: ‘Btw your hotel is near Deptford market. I used to do a stall there with my father when he was alive.
‘I would go every Saturday with him for many years so I know the area. You are also not too far from Woolwich – the famous Lee Rigby issue.
‘Have you heard of the Cutty Sark?’
Hussein said he had not and was more interested in visiting an Islamic bookshop.
Tom Little KC, prosecuting, asked Choudary why he had referred to ‘the famous Lee Rigby issue.’
He replied: ‘The reason I mentioned Lee Rigby is that every day from the age of five to 11 I would walk down Love Lane over John Wilson Street to Mulgrave Primary School outside where Lee Rigby was killed.
Fusilier Lee Rigby was run down in the street as he returned to Woolwich Barracks from duty at the Tower of London on May 22 2013 by Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale
‘It was always in my mind he was killed outside my primary school. Woolwich became on the map because of that.
‘Now everyone knows Woolwich. The whole world knows about it, it became global. Woolwich has become synonymous with the death of Lee Rigby.’
Little asked Choudary: ‘Did you ever meet the killer?’ and Choudary told the court: ‘I was there when he became Muslim.
‘I officiated at his marriage. I believe then he stopped associating with anyone I know for years before Lee Rigby was killed.’
Asked by his barrister, Paul Hynes KC, if he had any difficulty describing the killing of Lee Rigby as murder, Choudary said: ‘No, I don’t believe it was permissible to kill him and I said that at time.
‘I know he said Anjem is a noble person but I disagree with him.’
Records showed Adebolajo became a father in 2007, at the age of 23 when he apparently got two students pregnant at around the same time.
The mothers gave birth just 22 days apart after meeting him at Greenwich University in South East London.
He had started at the university in October 2003, and continued the following year but his academic progress was unsatisfactory, and he was not permitted to complete his studies.
Adebowale worked with Adebolajo to murder Lee Rigby and mutilate his body on camera
Adebolajo went on to marry Rikki Thomas, who converted to Islam.
They had a daughter in 2010 and another in 2011. Six weeks before he launched his attack they had a third child.
He also has a sixth child, whose identity is not clear.
Thomas and her two older sisters, who were all of Afro-Caribbean origin, all converted to Islam and would often wear the hijab head covering and long abaya dress, neighbours said at the time of the attack.
Adebolajo’s own conversion to Islam began with an encounter with the terror group that saw Choudary convicted this week: long before it was banned, al-Muhajiroun would regularly be seen out leafleting for new members in places like Luton and central London.
The then leader of the group, Omar Bakri Muhammad, later told how he had converted Adebolajo to Islam at one of his street stalls – and immediately groomed him to share his extremist view of the religion.
Bakri Muhammad later recalled: ‘We used to have a stall on the street in London where we would talk about the meaning of life with passers–by. He stopped to speak with us and we invited him to Islam,’ he said.
And Choudary himself told how Adebolajo attended their meetings and lectures from around 2003 until 2011.
Choudary said at the time, apparently endorsing Lee’s murder: ‘I knew him as Mujahid. He was a pleasant, quiet guy. He was interested in memorising the Koran.
‘Some members of the Muslim community struggle to express themselves and he is making his voice heard in blood.’
After the attack, MI5 cross-referenced Adebolajo’s telephone number against other subjects of interest which established that he had been in contact with them in relation to events held by al-Ghurabaa, an off-shoot of al-Muhajiroun, dating back to 2005.
Adebolajo was soon being drawn into a world of extremism and was photographed at two al-Muhajiroun rallies.
Rebecca Rigby, the widow of murdered fusilier Lee Rigby, laid a wreath at the scene of the murder on the first anniversary of his death in 2014
Hundreds arrived at Bury Parish Church in Lancashire for the 2013 funeral of Fusilier Lee Rigby
He was outside the Old Bailey in 2006 when a group of around 50 Muslims, some of them with scarves across their faces, protested against the arrest of Mizanur Rahman, who was being tried for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred during a protest against the publication of a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed by a Danish newspaper after calling for ‘another 9/11’.
Four men were arrested for fighting with police and photographers, including Adebolajo, who was led away in handcuffs.
He was also dressed in white Islamic clothes and surrounded by placards complaining of a ‘Crusade Against Muslims’ outside Paddington Green police station in April 2007.
He was attending a demonstration that followed the arrest of Abu Izzadeen, another al-Muhajiroun radical who was later sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for raising funds and inciting terrorism.
Adebolajo went on to help with an Islamic street stall in Powis Street, near Woolwich Arsenal and in Greenwich, near the Cutty Sark.
At his trial, Adebolajo referred to Choudary saying: ‘May Allah bless him, from what I know he’s a good man,’
Just hours after Choudary’s conviction this week, an attack on Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton close to barracks in Gillingham revived memories of the Rigby case.
And Lee’s mother, Lyn Rigby subsequently told MailOnline that the incident had prompted disturbing memories of what happened to her son.
She said: ‘This is just so heartbreaking, and it takes me right back to the day Lee was killed.
‘I couldn’t sleep for crying last night after I heard the news and when I closed my eyes, I had terrible flashbacks of when Lee was butchered in the street.
‘It brought it all flooding back as if it was just yesterday. All I could see was Lee lying on the floor, fatally wounded.
‘When I saw another soldier had been stabbed in the street, I thought, “Oh God, not again”.’
