What turned two boys from decent Christian families into murderers in the name of Islam?
- Michael Adebolajo born to a lower middle class family in South London
- He was brought up a Christian and dreamed of becoming a policeman
- Described as a 'lovely polite boy ' and a 'very family-orientated person'
- His mother is said to have no idea what turned him into a monster
- Michael Adebowale was described as fun-loving and 'always smiling'
- He became involved in drugs and claimed he was possessed by evil spirits
- Adebolajo kissed the Koran and smiled as verdicts were read to Old Bailey
- Extremists had denied murder on the basis they were 'soldiers of Allah'
Even at the end he refused to show any remorse.
As the verdict of murder was delivered, Michael Adebolajo smirked and kissed his copy of the Koran – the teachings of which he had twisted to justify his savagery.
He then looked to the heavens as if obeying Allah’s command before being led away to the cells. It was a final act of defiance from the 29-year-old convert who used the trial to peddle his hatred of Britain and his love of Al Qaeda.
Former lover: Michael Adebolajo's ex-girlfriend Justine Ridgen, 26, who is a beautician once shortlisted as the 'Face of Essex'. She dated the killer for a year before his descent into extremism
Gesture: Adebolajo holds the Koran up to his face and kisses it as the verdict of murder is delivered. Next to him Adebowale stares grimly ahead
Again and again he told Lee Rigby’s family how he will never regret killing the fusilier because he is a ‘soldier of Allah’.
It is an image completely at odds with his Christian upbringing in a loving lower middle class family in a London suburb where he once dreamed of becoming a policeman.
Last night a family friend told Mail: ‘He had been brainwashed to the point of madness. How can someone raised with middle-class values go from wanting to be a policeman to this?
At school: Friends said Michael Adebolajo was an easy-going teenager who used to crack jokes
‘His mother raised him as a Christian with good manners and respect. She still doesn’t understand how he turned into a monster.’
Adebolajo, 29, was born in Lambeth, South London, in 1984 to parents Anthony, a mental health nurse, and Tina, a teacher, who both emigrated from the south-west of Nigeria.
By all accounts he enjoyed a happy upbringing in Romford with his brother Jeremiah and sisters Blessing and Christiana.
His parents regularly took the children to church and Bible study. Pictures show a neatly dressed, good-looking boy whom friends described as ‘easy going and a bit of a joker’.
Among his close circle of friends at secondary school was Kirk Redpath, a lance corporal in the Army who was killed by a roadside bomb near Basra in Iraq in 2007.
Both spent time at each other’s houses after lessons. When asked about Mr Redpath in court, Adebolajo said: ‘I hold Tony Blair responsible for his death.’
Today Mr Redpath’s younger brother Grant, 26, finds it hard to believe that the ‘laid-back’ teenager who used to crack jokes at his house has become a terrorist.
‘What happened in Woolwich was butchery,’ he said. ‘I’ve asked myself whether he would have done this to my brother also.
'I don’t know what happened to Michael because he used to be the most laid-back, nicest guy in the world. I can’t feel anger toward the Michael I knew, because he was so nice a person. We can’t understand it. I don’t think we ever will.’
Profile: A forensic psychiatrist told the Old Bailey Michael Adebolajo (pictured), showed 'no regret or remorse for his actions'
Rally: Michael Adebolajo (circled) pictured at a demonstration in Paddington Green, London, in 2007 with Anjem Choudary
Others who knew Adebolajo as a teenager remember him as a keen footballer and rapper.
Beautician Justine Ridgen, 26, who was once shortlisted as the ‘Face of Essex’ dated him for a year before his descent into extremism. ‘He was just a lovely polite boy. He was a very family-oriented person,’ she said.
Adebolajo, who worked as a fitness instructor, had considerable influence in persuading those close to him to convert to Islam, including his brother Jeremiah, 27 (pictured)
As Adebolajo reached his mid-teens, however, the first signs emerged of a young man beginning to rebel against the Christian orthodoxy.
He left school at 16, moving to Havering Sixth Form College for his A-levels. It was around this time that he fell in with a Nigerian gang.
Some claim he started holding knives to people’s throats to steal their mobile phones.
Others suggested he became addicted cannabis and started selling drugs.
He has three criminal convictions from his teenage years, including one for robbery.
Then came his conversion to Islam.
‘When he was about 17 he just locked himself in this room with this bloke for a few hours and when he came out he was a Muslim convert,’ a classmate said.
‘He was spouting all sorts of stuff and said he had changed his name.’
His interest in radical Islam sparked furious rows with his parents.
Concerned, they moved the family to Saxilby, a rural village near Lincoln.
However, in 2003, aged 19, he returned to London and enrolled in a building and surveying course at Greenwich University in south London.
During his second year at university he began to mix with the more radical Muslims.
Hate preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, the so-called ‘Tottenham Ayatollah’ who founded the now-banned extremist group Al-Muhajiroun, has even tried to claim credit for converting Adebolajo to Islam.
Adebolajo, centre, appears in court in Kenya in 201. He was accused of trying to lead a group of youths trying to join Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab movement
He told the BBC’s Panorama: ‘The people were so happy about what Michael did. They carry attack against the British soldiers in the British soil. And we were so proud. He used to be one of my students.’
Adebolajo dropped out and changed his named to Mujahid Abu Hamza and started wearing traditional Muslim robes.
Well known: Michael Adebolajo was jailed for assaulting police at a protest and later arrested in Kenya trying to join Somalian extremists but was still allowed to walk free and later kill Lee Rigby
In 2005 he met hate preacher Anjem Choudary. In November 2006 he was arrested in a scuffle between extremists and police outside the Old Bailey during the trial of a fanatic accused of calling for British soldiers to be killed.
As he was led away he shouted about the right to ‘behead those who insult Islam’. The next year he was seen protesting outside Paddington Green police station.
Then in 2008 he was jailed for 51 days by magistrates for punching two officers during a demonstration outside the Danish embassy.
On an anniversary of 9/11 in 2009, he encouraged 1,500 followers to turn against Britain in a hate-filled rant outside a mosque. Standing on a platform, he yelled: ‘Do not be scared of the filthy kuffar [non-believers]. They are pigs.’
Adebolajo, who worked as a fitness instructor, had considerable influence in persuading those close to him to convert to Islam, including his brother Jeremiah, 27, and his sister Christiana, 22.
He has fathered six children by at least two women – Rikki Thomas and Makaela Murray-Jacobs – both of whom are Muslim converts.
Miss Murray-Jacobs, 27, registered the birth of boy Abdullah Shoaib Tariq Aziz at Lambeth Register Office in Brixton on 22 May 2013, just hours before his father killed Lee Rigby.
They also have a girl, Junaydah Safiyah Adebolajo, born at Lewisham Hospital, in south London, in February 2007. Makaela, a Muslim covert, told the Mail she was not involved in the murder of Lee Rigby. She said: ‘This has got nothing to do with me.’
The PE teacher, from south London, has set up home in Qatar’s capital Doha with Abdebolajo’s children where she intends to live an ‘Islamic life’.
Brought up a Christian, she converted while studying at Greenwich University – where she met Adebolajo.
How the Jihadists stole my only son
Michael Adebowale’s mother told last night how she had ‘lost’ her son to radical Islam and warned that extremists were ‘turning our children into terrorists’.
Speaking exclusively to the Mail, Juliet Obasuyi wept as she said: ‘I lost my son. He’s not dead, he’s still alive, but I lost him to the Jihad people.’
The Christian church chorister also revealed that she had confronted the imams her son visited because she was worried about his behaviour, but they simply told her he was a ‘good boy’.
Student: Michael Adebowale on his last day of school in Year 11 in 2007, six years before the 'model pupil' murdered Drummer Lee Rigby
It came as details emerged of how the 22-year-old, who had been a regular user of potent skunk cannabis, claimed he was possessed by evil spirits and had to be restrained when he tried to attack police officers.
In her first interview, the former probation officer said that she cannot understand why her only son murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby.
‘I don’t know the other boy, but my son wasn’t bad,’ she said.
‘My son was in the background. He was brainwashed by the older one. Perhaps he was the big brother my son never had.’
Juliet Obasuyi: She says her son was brainwashed
The 52-year-old warned of an ‘identity crisis’ among young black men in London which she believes has left them open to radicalisation.
She said her son had been studying creative writing at Birkbeck University in London, and wanted to write books on morals for Muslim children.
Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale was born to Nigerian parents in Denmark Hill, South London, in May 1991, and has one older half-sister Elizabeth Odunubi, who works in media.
His parents separated soon after his birth and he attended Sherington Primary School in Charlton – where actor Daniel Day Lewis and musician Jools Holland were educated.
He then attended Kidbrooke School in Greenwich, where he was known as Toby or Tobi, an abbreviation of his second name Oluwatobi.
Schoolfriends described him as fun-loving and ‘always smiling’ while neighbours said he chatted about Jamie Oliver recipes after the chef filmed his famous School Dinners series at the school.
But he started to be bullied at school and responded by joining a notorious local gang known as the Woolwich Boys.
He began smoking skunk cannabis, drug dealing and looking after a crack den. The gang is dominated by Muslim youths of Somali origin and has been linked to extremism.
When he was 16, he was attacked by crack addict Lee James, a professional bare-knuckle fighter.
He was stabbed twice and his friend Faridon Alizada was killed in front of him.
Adebowale was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and claimed he saw ‘jinns’ or evil spirits. He claimed they were tormenting him for having once read the Bible and he began hearing voices in his head.
Convicted of drug dealing in 2009, he eventually served six months in young offenders institutions.
The following year he met Adebolajo while studying at Greenwich University, and became fully committed to radical Islam.
Cold-blooded: Michael Adebowale, 22, of Greenwich, south-east London, with a knife in his hand after he had hacked Lee Rigby to death
He gave up alcohol, began distributing extremist leaflets near his mother’s home and started learning Arabic so he could write books for Muslim children.
Miss Obasuyi, who lives in Greenwich, said it came as a complete shock to her when he converted and changed his name to Ismail Ibn Abdullah.
She said: ‘His name is Michael. It’s a Christian name. He was raised in a Christian environment. I’m a Christian.’
Miss Obasuyi added: ‘I lost my son when he turned to Islam. I questioned the imams. I told them that he’s a very fragile boy.
‘They said: “He’s a wonderful boy. Why are you worried? He’s a good boy”. But I had this worry from day one and look what happened.’
Adebowale was also mentored by Richard Taylor, who, after the murder of his schoolboy son Damilola in 2000, campaigned against youth violence.
Associate: This is Lee Rigby's other killer, Michael Adebowale, pictured at a rally linked to radical preacher Anjem Choudary and he was also known to be friends with Adebolajo, who MI5 had tried to recruit
Mr Taylor said shortly after the murder of Lee Rigby: ‘He was a young loving boy. Quiet. Then suddenly his mum started calling me that she needs help. I started to hear that he was getting involved in issues around gangs and drugs.’
Miss Obasuyi revealed that she had left her job and now plans to go back to Nigeria, where she was born.
During his trial, it emerged that Adebowale was a long-term user of potent skunk cannabis – known for its links to mental illness – and had been treated for mental health problems.
His barrister Abbas Lakha QC said he experienced ‘severe paranoia’ and ‘heard voices’.
After his arrest and while in custody, he punched one police officer, threw water at and spat at another. Met Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said he ‘had to be restrained, very restrained, by officers.’
A family friend said Adebowale’s father is thought to have worked for the Nigerian High Commission in London, but his mother struggled to control her wayward son.
WHITE WIDOW FUNDED ADEBOLAJO'S TERROR TRIP TO EAST AFRICA
On the run: Samantha Lewthwaite
Michael Adebolajo’s trip to East Africa for terror training was financed by Samantha Lewthwaite, the fugitive ‘white widow’.
He was caught three years ago trying to cross from Kenya to Somalia to enlist with Al Qaeda-linked militants.
And Kenyan police say Lewthwaite, widow of 7/7 tube bomber Germaine Lindsay, financed his failed mission.
‘We have good intelligence that Adebolajo’s trip was financed by this white woman, Samantha,’ said a senior source.
‘He came here to meet jihadists and train as a terrorists in Somalia.’
Elijah Rop, the anti-terror chief in Mombasa, said he warned the British authorities to keep Adebolajo in custody.
‘If the British took my advice after I established that this man was a bad man, then he would be in jail now’ he added.
‘We gave very honest advice but the [British] High Commissioner ignored us because they think we cannot advise them on a matter of security.’
After arriving back in the UK, Adebolajo was deemed low risk by MI5 and was not closely monitored.
He was on MI5’s radar before he went to Kenya in October 2010 to spend a month being radicalised by Lewthwaite and her murderous Al Shabaab cohorts. He then set off for the terror cell’s training camps in lawless Somalia.
He and five others were arrested on a boat close to Lamu, a town near the border. They were carrying Al Shabaab pamphlets and immediately identified as a terror threat by Kenyan police.
Adebolajo was about to be charged with terrorism offences before the British authorities asked for his deportation back to the UK.
A year after meeting him, 29-year-old Lewthwaite was on the run from police who had linked her to a terror cell and bomb plot in Mombasa.
Police say the mother of four from Aylesbury, Bucks, uses her money and middle-class education to fund the cell.
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