Finsbury Park terror trial - as it happened: Suspect wanted to kill Jeremy Corbyn at pro-Palestinian march, court hears
Father-of-four, 48, denies charges of murder and attempted murder
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The alleged Finsbury Park attacker has claimed he was not driving the van as it hit Muslim worshippers.
Darren Osborne told Woolwich Crown Court a man called Dave had jumped into the moving vehicle and unexpectedly ploughed it into victims while he was changing his trousers in the footwell.
The defendant claimed he, Dave and another man called Terry Jones, originally planned to attack a Muslim politician in Rochdale, and then a pro-Palestinian march in the hope of killing Jeremy Corbyn and protesters.
Mr Osborne could not explain how Dave disappeared afterwards and was not seen by dozens of witnesses.
He had told counter-terror police he was "flying solo" in interview shortly after attack, the court heard.
The father-of-four denies charges of murder and attempted murder after allegedly ramming a van into Muslim worshippers shortly after midnight on 19 June.
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Police told the jury CCTV shows only Mr Osborne inside the van and body camera footage taken shortly after his arrest shows him telling an officer that he was driving.
In an urgent safety interview conducted later in hospital, he allegedly told a counter-terrorism there was no one else involved, adding: "I'm flying solo, mate."
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC yesterday presented CCTV showing the movements of Mr Osborne driving around the area in the minutes before the attack.
Deemed by prosecutors to be an act of terrorism, it killed one man and seriously injured nine others, including a victim who was left trapped under the van.
Mr Rees said the new evidence was “directed at the issue of whether Mr Osborne, the defendant, acted together with other persons, specifically a man called Dave and a man called Terry Jones”.
The jury was played a series of CCTV footage clips showing the van used in the attack driving around Finsbury Park in the 10 minutes before the attack.
At one point it is seen parked while Mr Osborne, 48, buys a drink and returns, and there is a four-second gap in the coverage between cameras shortly afterwards.
Another clip shows the view of the attack from the other side of a fence that formed a dead end.
“One of the issues being considered is how many people got out of the van after the incident occurs,” Mr Rees said.
The van is seen crashing into bollards, with a single figure getting out of the driver’s door, stumbling and running off camera pursued by three people.
DC Hazel Londt, of the Metropolitan Police, told the court she had reviewed footage for eight hours and did not see anyone else inside the van.
Asked whether there was any evidence of anyone apart from Mr Osborne entering or leaving the vehicle, she replied: “No.”
Survivors of the attack previously told the court they saw only one person in the van and apprehended Mr Osborne after he allegedly attempted to flee, pinning him to the ground before police arrived.
“I’ve done my job, you can kill me now,” he allegedly told them, while smiling.
Experts concluded the van had been “intentionally steered” into a group of Muslims who had left Ramadan prayers at two nearby mosques.
They were clustered around 51-year-old Makram Ali, who had collapsed, and were waiting for an ambulance when the van struck.
A pathologist told the jury Mr Ali had not suffered a heart attack and died of “catastrophic” injuries caused by being run over.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Osborne deliberately targeted Muslims after becoming “brainwashed” in the wake of watching a television drama on the Rotherham grooming scandal and reading far-right posts.
The defendant allegedly drove from his home in Cardiff to target a pro-Palestinian march in London on 18 June but found surrounding roads closed by police and started searching for mosques in London.
Bar staff from a pub where Mr Osborne drank on the night before the attack told them he ranted about Muslims, grooming gangs, the Labour party and other topics before being told to leave.
Similar themes were addressed in a handwritten note found inside the van, which also hit out at figures including singer Lily Allen, Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.
The trial continues.
Mr Osborne claims he didn't know the attack would take place or discuss it, adding: "It's all down to Dave...my recollection is rather vivid."
Mr Osborne says: "I was up for an attack that day but when we got to Finsbury Park I was just that exhausted, I had lost my nerve, I wanted to regroup I don't know...the attack was out of the blue."
Mr Osborne: "I just thought we were going to postpone things to do something with a bit more substance."
Mr Rees says that Mr Osborne chose not to serve a defence statement by the deadline of 14 October last year, and did not serve one until Friday.
Mr Rees points out it came near the end of the prosecution case.
Mr Rees is going through the new defence statement that was submitted on Friday, causing the case to be adjourned.
It says Mr Osborne knew when hiring the van that it would be used to target the Al-Quds Day marchers.
The defence statement reads: "He [Osborne] was then instructed to drive to Finsbury Park where an alternative target had been identified by Terry and Dave."
But Mr Osborne now claims his own statement is incorrect. Asked how that has happened, he says: "It just has."
The statement says Mr Osborne was designated to be the person to "drive into a Muslim target", but Mr Osborne says it is wrong.
Mr Osborne says he "has no explanation" of how his own statement is now incorrect.
Mr Rees says one explanation is that he has changed his account over the past days but he has denied it.
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