Michael
Adebolajo has been given a whole-life term and Michael Adebowale has
been jailed for a minimum of 45 years for murdering Fusilier Lee Rigby.
Adebolajo,
29, and Adebowale, 22, drove into Fusilier Rigby with a car before
hacking him to death in Woolwich, south-east London, in May last year.
The judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, said Adebolajo's was one of those "rare cases" warranting a whole-life term.
The pair were absent during sentencing after a scuffle in the dock.
As
Mr Justice Sweeney began to sentence the men they started shouting and
scuffling with court security guards. They had to be forced to the
ground and were removed from court.
Sentencing the killers in
their absence, the judge said they had been convicted on "overwhelming"
evidence of the "barbaric" murder of Fusilier Rigby.
Adebolajo was the leader of the "joint enterprise", the judge said, but Adebowale played his part "enthusiastically".
Mr Justice Sweeney said the pair carried out the murder "in a way that would generate maximum media coverage".
"He had done absolutely nothing to deserve what you did to him", the judge said. The pair created "a bloodbath", he went on.
"You both gloried in what you had done", said the judge.
"Your
sickening and pitiful conduct was in stark contrast to the women at the
scene who tended to Lee Rigby's body and challenged what you had done."
Speaking outside court, DI Pete Sparks, police liaison officer for Fusilier Rigby's family, read out a short statement on behalf of the family saying "no other sentence would have been acceptable".
"We feel satisfied that justice has been served for Lee", the statement said.
Sue
Hemming, head of special crime and counter terrorism at the Crown
Prosecution Service, said Adebolajo and Adebowale had "revelled in one
of the most appalling terrorist murders I have seen".
"Not only was the attack brutal and calculated, it was also designed to advance extremist views", she said.
Assistant
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick said the
sentences reflected the "true horror" of Fusilier Rigby's murder.
Earlier, Fusilier Rigby's wife Rebecca said her young child would grow up and see images "no son should have to endure".
Her statement was one of those from Fusilier Rigby's family, read out by prosecutor Richard Whittam QC.
Mrs
Rigby said she had accepted her husband's life would be at risk when he
was deployed to Afghanistan, but not when he was in the UK.
She
said: "When you wave someone off you accept that there is a chance you
will never see them again. You do not expect to see this on the streets
of the UK."
The court also heard part of a statement from the soldier's stepfather, Ian Rigby.
He
said: "After all he'd been through in Afghanistan, all Lee was doing
was walking through London. After seeing the television, you just can't
comprehend it."
Adebolajo and Adebowale faced whole-life jail
terms after a Court of Appeal ruling last week upheld judges' right to
jail the most serious offenders in England and Wales for the rest of
their lives.
However, counsel for Adebolajo, David Gottlieb, warned an indeterminate sentence would "create a martyr".
Mr
Gottlieb said Adebolajo was "not so depraved or wicked that he is
incapable of redemption", saying the murder "shares the characteristics
of a religiously aggravated crime".
He said that Adebolajo intended to die and still believed he should be put to death.
Adebolajo had claimed he was a "soldier of Allah" and the killing was an act of war.
Counsel
for Michael Adebowale, Abbas Lakha QC, told the court the case was
"horrific" but was not a case "where the offending is so exceptionally
high that Mr Adebowale must be kept in prison for his life".
He
said: "The right and proper sentence is one which does leave open the
possibility of release in the future. Any other sentence would be
inhuman."
At the beginning of the hearing the defendants, both dressed in black, were asked to stand, although Adebolajo did not.
Fusilier
Rigby, from Middleton, Greater Manchester, was murdered as he returned
to his barracks in Woolwich, south-east London on 22 May 2013. He died
of multiple cut and stab wounds.
Adebolajo and Adebowale
drove into Fusilier Rigby at 30 to 40mph, before dragging him into the
road and attacking him with knives and attempting to decapitate him with
a meat cleaver.
Three people were arrested outside the court as far-right protesters gathered while the pair were sentenced.
Supporters
of the British National Party and the English Defence League gathered
around makeshift gallows constructed in the street and held placards
calling for the capital punishment to be restored.
A City of London Police spokesman confirmed two men were arrested, one on suspicion of actual bodily harm and one for affray.
Source: BBC News
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