Lee Rigby murder: Royal Barnes pleads guilty to posting videos online glorifying the death
Mr Barnes uploaded footage online celebrating Fusilier Lee Rigby's murder in Woolwich last year
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A man who was associated with one of Fusilier Lee Rigby’s murderers pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on Wednesday to posting videos on YouTube glorifying his murder.
Royal Barnes, 23, of Hackney, east London, and his wife Rebekah Dawson, 22, recorded and uploaded three videos shortly after Mr Rigby was murdered in Woolwich, south London, in May 2013.
In one of the videos posted under his account Musa Real Talks, Barnes hailed the murder as a “brilliant day” and in a follow-up he mocked the outpouring of public grief, laughing uncontrollably as he drove past floral tributes.
Mr Barnes, who knew one of Mr Rigby’s murderers Michael Adebowale, also posted on Facebook the offer of a reward for avenging the rape of an Iraqi woman, to which none of his 500 “friends” on the website replied.
The post on June 12, 2013, it read: “Any1 who kills an invading soldier in Muslim land I will give them a Vauxhall Astra 3door and money (French British American any kaffir soldier take ur pick).”
He pleaded guilty to three counts of disseminating a terrorist publication and one of inciting murder, during a hearing.
His wife had already admitted disseminating a terrorist publication at a previous hearing and is awaiting sentence.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, will be sentenced later this month after they were found guilty of murdering Fusilier Rigby.
The pair ran the soldier down in a car before hacking him to death with a meat cleaver and knives in a frenzied attack. They dumped his body in the middle of the road near Woolwich Barracks.
The court was then shown all three videos and some other examples of earlier videos that Mr Barnes had posted on YouTube, which were found in a police search of his home.
The first video includes a clip of one of the Woolwich murderers talking with a knife in his hand in front of Fusilier Rigby's body.
What follows is an on camera diatribe by Mr Barnes filmed by his wife Ms Dawson. The whole video goes on for seven and a half minutes.
The second video shows Ms Dawson in a face veil behind a title: “British troops kill Muslims so they will die on London streets.”
The third video shows Mr Barnes being filmed by his wife driving past the scene of the Woolwich murder to a loud musical soundtrack. They are heard laughing repeatedly.
As Ms Dawson asks him to drive around again, Mr Barnes says: “these kuffar, they fail to realise that their foreign policy is the reason why this Lee Rigby is no more (hysterical laughing)...he got chopped up in Woolwich…”
The first and second films were only on YouTube for two to three days, while the third remained online for two weeks. Only the first video was removed by YouTube itself.
Another video clip retrieved by police showed Mr Barnes at Finsbury Park Tube station pretending to be a suicide bomber on the platform in front of other passengers.
The court was shown a further video of Mr Barnes secretly filmed in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court being sentenced for a public order offence after a demonstration by the far-right group the English Defence League.
The last video shown in court was of a vigilante-style Sharia Muslim patrol in east London.
Mr Barnes, spoke in a clear voice in the dock as he entered his guilty pleas.
The judge Brian Barker adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed while reports are carried out.
It can now be reported that Mr Barnes, along with fellow members of the Sharia street patrols, was convicted in November last year of using threatening and abusive words and behaviour towards members of the public.
PA