A Muslim extremist pretended to be a suicide bomber at Finsbury Park Tube station and posted sickening videos online glorifying the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby, a court heard this morning.
Royal Barnes, 23, and his wife Rebekah Dawson, 22, recorded and uploaded three videos shortly after the murder in Woolwich in May 2013.
In one of the videos posted under Barnes’ account Musa Real Talks, he 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.
A number of other videos were found at his Hackney home, including him on a vigilante-style Shiria Muslim patrol and another which shows him at Finsbury Park Tube station pretending to be a suicide bomber on the platform in front of other passengers.
Barnes, who knew one of Fusilier Rigby’s murderers, Michael Adebowale, also posted on Facebook the offer of the reward of his wife’s car for avenging the rape of an Iraqi woman.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of disseminating a terrorist publication and one of inciting murder during a hearing at the Old Bailey. His wife, who had insisted on wearing her veil in court, had already admitted disseminating a terrorist publication at a previous hearing and is awaiting sentence.
Dawson also pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court earlier this month to a single count of intimidating witness Daudi Yusuf, a security guard at the Finsbury Park Mosque in St Thomas’s Road – several weeks after he was involved in a row with Barnes.
Prosecuting, Kate Wilkinson told the court that before the postings, Barnes had been involved with a Sharia Law patrol of London streets, ordering women in short shirts to cover up and telling people to stop drinking alcohol.
He was also a member of extremist group Al-Muhajiroun – or Muslims Against Crusades – taking part in demonstrations advocating Sharia Law in the UK, including one on December 24, 2012, outside St Paul’s Cathedral with Adebowale.
The court was then shown all three videos and some other examples of earlier videos that Barnes had posted on YouTube, which were found in a police search of his home.
In the first he described Lee Rigby’s murder as a “brilliant day” and warns Prime Minister David Cameron and the British public that the attack will not be the last. He says: “You are not safe here, do you understand? British soldiers, you are not safe on the streets of London.”
The second video shows Dawson in a face veil behind a title: “British troops kill Muslims so they will die on London streets.”
She says: “Obviously now this guy who has been killed, Joe Bloggs or whatever his name is, was killed, this is the lion, the tiger fighting back...We are fighting back and Sharia, obviously the Islamic law, will dominate the entire world.”
The third video shows Barnes being filmed by his wife driving past the scene of the Woolwich murder to a loud musical soundtrack. They are heard to laugh repeatedly as they take in the floral tributes to the murdered soldier lining the street.
The judge Brian Barker adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed while reports are carried out.
A court order prohibits the publishing of Barnes and Dawson’s address, due to fear of vigilante attacks.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, will be sentenced later this month after they were found guilty of murdering Fusilier Rigby.
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