Finsbury Park-accused trawled far-right groups online, court told

A man accused of carrying out a van attack against Muslim worshippers in Finsbury Park last year had previously threatened to kill all Muslims and searched for material posted online by Britain First, Tommy Robinson and other far-right figures, a jury has heard.

During the second day of his trial, Woolwich crown court was told that Darren Osborne, 48, threatened to kill all Muslims in a pub near his home in Cardiff shortly before the incident in north London in the early hours of 19 June.

“He said he was going to take it into his own hands [and said]: ‘I am going to kill all Muslims,’” Callum Spence, a serving British soldier who was in the pub, told the jury. He added Osborne had said “all our families are going to be Muslims and are going to be terrorists”.

Spence, who serves with the Royal Engineers, said Osborne had accused all Muslims of being terrorists during an altercation in the pub on the evening of 17 June.

The jury was presented with a police report stating three electronic devices linked to Osborne had been used to research material from far-right groups, as well as the “conspiracy theory and fake news website” InfoWars in the weeks prior to the incident.

The jury was told that among the tweets accessed on two iPhones and an iPad used by Osborne was one sent from the account of the former EDL leader, Tommy Robinson, two days before the Finsbury Park incident. “Where was the day of rage after the terrorist attacks. All I saw was lighting candles,” it read.

The report said police had found Osborne also received messages from Robinson. One, sent in the aftermath of the Manchester arena attack, read: “There is a nation within a nation forming just beneath the surface of the UK. It is a nation built on hatred, violence and on Islam.”

In another message, the former EDL leader asked for support with his campaigning, the police report said. Rees said the communication from Robinson was believed to have gone out to his followers, rather than to Osborne in particular.

Osborne also received a direct Twitter message from the deputy leader of Britain First, Jayda Fransen, according to the report, and searched for material Fransen published online. Britain First was described by the prosecution as a “far-right, ultra-nationalist British political organisation ... that campaigns against mutli-culturalism and what it says is Islamification and protecting what it calls traditional British culture”.

The police report said the devices were used to access an article entitled “Proof: Muslims celebrated terror attack in London” on the InfoWars website.

Osborne has been charged with the murder of Makram Ali and the attempted murder of other people. He denies the charges.

The trial continues.