Ep 01 - Lee Rigby

Hello. Hi. I'm Rachel.

And I'm Hannah. And this is the Sinister South podcast, a podcast all about the macabre and the menacing in South London. Season three.

We're back bitches. We are back. Thank you so much for tolerating the fact that we did it.

We just needed a break, guys. We just needed it to stop. And even though we only had five minutes.

Five minutes? Yeah. I mean, to be fair, even though we only had the one episode that we need to do to end season two, it just wasn't going to work. It got to the point where we were like, well, could we record then? But I don't think we should start recording at 11 p.m. Because I was just trying to fit it in all that I could come around before work.

It was all a bit bad. So we've decided that. Yeah, this is now what was the end of episode two season two.

Oh, Jesus, we're doing really well. So well. I'm so glad we had that break.

We're so rested. Is now the start of season three. What does season three mean? Exactly the same as season two.

We've had a couple of weeks off and I may have changed the what they called the icons that are on the episodes for when I upload them. Oh, OK. It's just ever so slightly changed.

I don't know the weeks that you asked me to do it. I'm just like, I don't know what template you're using, but it's this one now. This is what we use now.

Yeah, no. So, yeah, season three. It's exciting.

I know. How the devil are you? I'm all right. I'm surviving.

Not quite thriving. Are you surviving in spite? Yes, that's what's happening. Despite the trials, despite the tribulations.

Yeah, fair, fair, fair. Yeah, fine. I mean, to be honest, I'm not.

Nothing really has changed over the break for me. Like I've not gone anywhere or done anything over and above normal. We've got nice plans coming up, though.

Yes. Yes, we do. I'm excited about that.

Yeah, we've got a couple of days away. Trevor's just us two. We're going to be cocooned.

Cocooned in coconut. Yeah, that'll be fun, though. Be nice.

We're going to a spa. We should say that. Otherwise, it just sounds mental.

We're going to a spa. We're also going to a conference for work purposes. Yeah.

That happens to have a spa. And we all know how I feel about conferences. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. It's all good. It's all good.

But yeah, what have I done? What have I done? No. That's why I said I don't know what to talk about. And then normally I have a look at my camera roll and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's what I did.

OK. I went to the football. I took my granny out for a nice lunch.

That was really fun. There you go. The good old JB.

We had and it has been so long since we've recorded had the Hindu and the wedding. You have had the Hindu and the wedding. It was very good fun.

Although I found a new, what should I call it? Phobia. OK. Who in their right mind gives, I mean, one, children shouldn't be at weddings.

But they were the groom's children. Oh, OK. Fine.

But who gives children at a wedding when everyone's dressed up? Yeah. Autoguns. Oh, no.

No. Don't you dare. Oh, no.

Absolutely not. That is ridiculous. No, I know.

So, yeah, there was long periods of the afternoon where I was hiding behind Richard, going very fucking dare because I was wearing that type of material that as soon as like a drop of water touched it, it wouldn't just dry. It would stay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I loved my dress. It was bright pink. It was beautiful.

You look fit. Thanks, babe. You did.

I felt very good. Yeah, we danced. We drank.

The bride looked stunning and she was having, you know, you can just tell like, oh, God, you're having the best day. But you're having so much fun, which was lovely. Brilliant.

Yeah, that was really good. The Hindu was a laugh. I do love the photos that you took of you at the Hindu.

Your outfit was awesome. Your hair was on point. That hair took so long.

It looked good. Thank you. I did message you being like, I think I fancy you.

Genuinely. At some point, she might let me post a picture. But it's, yeah, you look fit.

No, that hair took so long. I'm happy for a picture to go. So I'm like, it needs to be experienced more widely because it took like fucking three hours and I burnt my hand in the scar.

Oh, is that what that is? The bird still hasn't gone. Oh, bless you. I didn't know you opened the door.

I was like, what has she done? I mean, you should have seen it. It was massive. Anyway, we won't post a picture of my bird.

We're not that desperate for content yet. Yet, yeah. So, yeah, I've been working and then henning and working and then weddinging.

Nice. And then, yeah, took running out for a lunch, which was civilized until it wasn't, which is always the way with GB. And went to my first, so I follow a local football team.

Yes. I think I've spoken about it before, but I went to my first away game. That's very exciting.

At the weekend, and that was, that was a laugh. So, yeah. Was it a good match? Did you win? We did win.

It was all right. Yeah. Yeah, good.

Love it. Went to Bill and Ricky. Wild.

The places you go. I know. I know.

The things I see. We haven't seen each other in about three weeks. I know.

Which is... I think this is why this is a bit stilted because we're both a bit like, hi. Do you still like me? I don't know. Yeah, three bloody weeks.

I know. Ridiculous scenes. Absolutely ridiculous.

Not doing it again. Would not recommend or repeat. No, but how are you and how was your holiday? I am well, thank you.

My holiday was lovely. Tin box in Devon did all the things to cure what ails me, which was nice. Feral child wasn't as feral as could have been, which was very good.

I put it this way. Last year, I got back from a holiday in Devon going never again. I am never, ever, ever doing that again.

I'm not putting myself through it. I'm not putting my sanity through it. I'm not putting everyone else on that campsite through it.

It's just not happening. This year was very much like, oh, it's quite sad to see the end of it. It's a positive.

Yeah. Positive. My big one is still down there learning to surf.

She's with my mother. You haven't left her. Bye.

This is where you live now. Make your own fortune. Yeah, she's learning to surf, which is cool.

I got a video of her actually standing up. It's so cool. Little legend.

It did make my heart very happy. She, however, has got absolutely zero fucks given. So we were packing up to live and she'd made some friends on the site and like, you know, that's great.

And she'd been off until like 10 30 at night. We're having to drag her in to be like, no, you've got to go to bed now. But, you know, she's eight.

So she's worldly wise and she could do what she likes. But yeah, on the day that we left, we'd packed everything up. We brought the small one home with us and I went to go and give her a hug and say goodbye.

I had to drag her away from my friends again, say goodbye to me. And then I was like, you've got to call me every day. And her response was, and I quote, yeah, I want to get a chance.

Excuse you. I gave you life. You're a fucking call me.

But yeah, so, so again, zero fucks given. Doesn't care. Other than that, what else have I been up to? I've been rewatching all of supernatural.

Oh, which is I've been rewatching Sex and the City. Oh, there you go. There you go.

Slightly different genres. Yeah, just but, you know, I can get on board, but both. No, supernatural is one of those shows where it's like I started watching it years ago and like got up to sort of like season three and then it kind of just life.

So I decided, fuck it. I'm going to see if I can get there are now 15 seasons of it. Oh, Jesus.

So we'll see how far I get into it. However, I must admit it has just reaffirmed my love for Jensen Ackles. That man, honestly, I'm sitting with Will and he every day.

He's just like, right. I get it. I get it.

I'm like, no, but like, wouldn't it? Would you? Because like, I would. So yes, that's been fun. That's what I'm doing.

Oh, I know. I haven't even spoken to you about this. So, you know, um, a couple of episodes ago before the end of the season, we were talking about hobbies and how we don't have any.

Yeah. So I was like, right. I feel like I need to do something.

I need something that is not staring at a screen. If you've started saying lame, I'm going to be really angry at you. Pretty lame.

But I feel like an old lady, but I love it at the same time. Knitted. No, I'm not knitting.

No, no, no, no. So on my phone, I play this ridiculous game of painting by numbers. She's just pressing random parts of your screen.

And like, it's not, nothing's actually happening. I'm just pressing the screen. So I thought I'm going to try and do it in real life.

Okay. So there's no screen. So I've bought off of the website that Sharpie named.

I've bought a painting by numbers, like canvas thing. And it's like a proper, like, it's a weird gothy picture. Of course.

It's a woman with a raven standing in a forest and I am painting by numbers. But every number is black. Different shades of grey.

There is a bit of black. There's some mossy green as well. But yeah, but I've been sitting there doing it and I'm not going to lie.

It has been so therapeutic. Oh, good for you, mate. Do you know what? I've got my little light.

My studio where I say my light. It's Will's light that he paints. Oh my god.

Oh my god. You two are so sexy. We are literally, it's just madness.

But it was quite funny though, because I was sitting there doing it. It's getting more like, you know, just nice to have some time. I'm not staring, thinking of work stuff or like, you know, just get to focus in on this and realize how shit I am with a paintbrush.

But I'm getting better with it. Like you think painting in the lines, that feels like it's an easy thing to do, right? No, not an easy thing to do. But he did come downstairs and he was like, I know your problem.

I was like, not choosing the right paintbrushes. And so he gave me all of his, like, these aren't my expensive ones. I'm not giving you those.

But he gave me another pot of paintbrushes and he was like using these. And then he brought down his water pad thing. He was like, you know, you've got to do two layers.

I'm like, how am I meant to do two layers of paint by numbers? How does that work? Well, you can see what the color is after you've done the first layer, mate. Well, yeah, you can. But when it's lots of different grays, it's slightly hard to be like, was that that one? Also, it's acrylics.

I don't need to water it down. Just paint. It's fine.

It's going to be something that I will have halfway through. And then I will. I will never, ever hear about this again.

Probably not. How's your farm? My farm is all right. The barn is a bitch and I hate it.

Also have been doing the side quests with the match three games. That fucking whatever his douchebag name is needs to fuck off. Stephen.

No, not him. Oh, Arnie. No, it says Rachel and Rossertits.

And then there's you have to go and find the penguins. Oh, that was ages ago. Well, I'm still early on in my farm journey.

Okay. But yeah, so he's an annoyance. And yeah, I don't know why I've got I've got an airport.

I've got a lab. I don't really know what to do with them. I keep trying to do the airport and I run out of time every time.

Because my barn's got too much fucking shit in it. So I can't harvest the stuff I need. You know, you can sell things from your barn.

Yeah, I've been selling all the yarn. So much yarn. Stop producing the yarn.

But then I was saying that to myself. It doesn't stop producing so much yarn. But then the little sheep shiver when they're not eating.

And I'm like, oh, no, the sheep are cold. I've got 476 things of yarn. Because the cartoon animated sheep on the phone.

And the little chickens say, hungry. I know they do. It's horrible.

The cows just look bored. Yeah, the cows are like, whatever. Don't shit forced farming.

Yeah, exactly. Suck your own titties. But yeah, so it's going all right.

I'm just at the point now where I'm like, I need to expand. I need to work out my zoning. That's where I'm at.

I've got like the residential zone. And then I've got like the industry. We have to stop.

We have to stop. Sorry, you started it. I know.

But we're recording. This is the type of catch-up we should have done beforehand. Look, do you know what? I think there are so many of our listeners who have got vested interest in my farm, actually.

If everyone downloads Township and then finds, isn't your name Maureen? It is Maureen, yeah. Finds Maureen who's in the co-op. Golf babies, I think it is, yeah.

And then I'm just called Hannah, but I'm in the co-op called Dumplings. Come and find us. Come and see our farms.

Come and see our farms. I'm always producing content. So much content.

Just a content machine. Talking of content machines, because we do have an absolute fucking whopper of a case. So I'm just going to put it out there, Travis.

This episode is probably going to be slightly longer than our usual ones. Saying that now and I'll probably talk at the pace of light. Pace of light? Pace of light.

You know that well-known metric. Yeah, but we should probably get into it. Although, she says, last thing before we go into the case.

I met up with an old work colleague a couple of weeks ago. Let's just call him Mr. M. And he said that he listens to the podcast regularly. And apparently, his words, not mine, made enforced it that his family listened to it on a trip the other day.

Because he was like, I'm behind. I need to listen to it. You're all just going to have to listen to it.

And he said to me, he was like, I have no idea what your friend Hannah looks like, but fuck me. Is she funny? I mean, that's rude because he's met me. He probably has, but it was a long time ago.

No, maybe he wasn't there. There was one time I came and met you. We were going somewhere after.

Yes. And it was a drink for all of that lot. I think he may have left.

But yeah, it was just like, yeah, listen every week. It's really funny. But yeah, and then he said, and it's probably the way she wants it.

She doesn't want me to perceive her, does she? I was like, oh, he's quoting it. Don't look at me. So yeah, so there we go.

It's just a nice little ego boost before you start your case. There we go. I love a listener.

There you go. What a thing. Cool.

So I think you can probably tell from my lack of, I'm nervous about this one. Not for any reason other than it's big and I want to do it justice. But also I'm going to put it out there.

There is two names that I have the phonetics spelling for, but they're quite similar. And I have to say them a lot. So if I trip and tumble and fall over, it may become Michael one and Michael two at some point.

And I'll just do it chronologically. Michael one will be the older one. Michael two will be the younger one.

But we'll see. I'm going to try it because I don't. Yeah.

Also, I don't really care about respecting them very much. And you'll see why in a minute. Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, it's there's a lot here. It's a big case, trigger warnings. Yeah.

You know, it's it's violent and it's horrible. And all the references will be in the show notes. They will indeed.

Of which I have, I think two and a half pages just of references. Oh, wow. So they're not in the, I should tell you this, or fair for the admin side of things, but they're not in the actual case notes.

Yeah, fair. There are no separate things. That's fine.

I will put some of them in the show notes. Most of them on the website. Because this is, yeah, this is 18 pages without.

So let's get into it. Let's go. Buckle up.

I am buckled. Woolage, 22nd of May, 2013, a warm spring afternoon. Outside the Royal Artillery Barracks on Artillery Place, life was carrying on as usual.

Traffic was easing through. Parents were collecting their kids from nearby Mulgrave Primary and commuters were starting to arrive back into Woolage Arsenal Station. It was a familiar South London day.

And then just after 2.20pm, that ordinariness was ruptured. A voxel Tigra mounted the kerb at speed and struck a young man as he crossed the road. Within seconds, two men climbed out of the car, armed with knives and cleavers.

What followed was one of the most harrowing acts of public violence in modern Britain. A targeted killing carried out in broad daylight, yards from a school and yards from a barracks. And at the time, the Royal Artillery Barracks was still an active military base.

The murder was filmed by shocked bystanders before the story was known. The victim was Fusilier Lee Rigby, known as Riggers to his mates, a 25-year-old soldier, drummer, son and father. He wasn't in uniform that day.

He wasn't on a battlefield. He was walking home from a shift at the Tower of London, wearing a Help for Heroes hoodie with a military-issue rucksack slung over one shoulder. Just a young man on an ordinary South London street.

But his murder didn't just end one life. It cracked something wider open. The sense of safety in broad daylight.

The idea that terror happens somewhere else. The fragile fabric of a community in a city still scarred from the 2011 riots. In the hours and weeks that followed, the killing would spiral outwards into debates about MI5 surveillance, online radicalisation, policing, foreign policy, and it would be seized upon by the far right as a rallying cry.

Yet, as Lee's mother Lynn has repeated again and again, that the centre of it all was not a victim or a headline, but her son. So who was Lee Rigby? Before the horror of Woolwich, there was just Lee. A son, a dad, a brother, a mate, and a soldier.

In the words of his friends, one of the Batillians' characters. Lee James Rigby was born on the 4th of July 1987 in Crumpsell, I think it's pronounced Manchester. Lee grew up in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in a very close-knit and loving family.

From an early age, Lee had one clear ambition to join the army. He signed up to the cadets as a teenager and despite having his first application rejected, in 2006, at the age of 19, Lee successfully enlisted in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Friends later said that the initial rejection only made Lee more determined.

Lee trained as a drummer in the Corps of Drums, but when deployed, he was also a machine gunner. His service took him to Cyprus, Germany, and in April 2009 to Helmand Province in Afghanistan. Colleagues remembered him as upbeat and dependable, the sort of co-worker who lifted spirits on the hardest days.

In Helmand, he joked that what he missed most were pot noodles and Yorkie bars, rather than anything grand, a small glimpse into his humour that stuck with those who knew him. After returning from operations, Lee took on a public-facing role at the Tower of London, combining recruitment with ceremonial duties. It was work that suited him and his personality, approachable, proud of his career, and always quick to smile.

Beyond the uniform, Lee was many things, but at the top of his priorities was being a dad. His young son Jack was the centre of his world. Although separated from Jack's mum, who he had been married to, Lee was still a consistent presence in his life, engaged, proud and determined to be the best dad he could be.

Away from duty, football was a constant. A devoted Manchester United supporter, Lee never missed a chance to rib his mates who followed rival clubs. He also loved a night out with mates, Nando's, and the banter that comes from hanging out with pals.

Lee wasn't perfect, but he was real, grounded, funny and deeply loved. Lynn Rigby has spent more than a decade pushing back against the way her son's death eclipsed his life. I don't want people to remember Lee just for the way he died.

I want them to remember who he was, a son, a brother, a dad, a joker. For Lynn, the loss has never become abstract. She keeps his photograph in the front room and talks to Lee every evening.

She tells him all about her day and things that are going on and then kisses the glass goodnight. And she still sets a place for him at the table. Because his absence isn't symbolic.

It's real. Measured in empty chairs and conversations cut short. Lee Rigby never came home, but he's never gone.

Now, it might be obvious, but this section comes with a really huge trigger warning. It contains references to graphic violence and distressing events. So, as I said, on the 22nd of May, Lee had just finished a shift at the Tower of London where he worked in recruitment and ceremonial duties.

He was wearing a help for hero's hoodie. Kind of jeans, but they were kind of like army issue almost. Right.

And trainers. Casual clothes, but they still marked his identity as a soldier. At approximately 210, he arrived at Woolwich Arsenal DLR station, stepped off the train and began the short walk up Wellington Street towards John Wilson Street, an artillery place.

His military issued rucksack. Rucksack was... His military issued rucksack was slung casually over his shoulder. He was heading home.

At the same time, two men were making their own preparations. Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebolale had left an address in Lewisham earlier that afternoon driving a voxel Tigra. Days before, Adebolajo had brought a set of knives and a sharpener from the Argos in Lewisham.

By 2.13pm, CCTV captured the Tigra circling near artillery place. The men parked facing the barracks, watching and waiting. Just five minutes later, Lee began to cross the road.

So at 2.20pm, Lee crossed artillery place and the waiting car surged forward. Adebolajo was at the wheel. Witnesses later recalled the voxel Tigra mounting the curb at speed, approximately 30 to 40 miles an hour and striking Lee with full force.

The impact threw him onto the bonnet before his body then hit the ground. Within seconds, the two men had climbed out of the car, armed with knives, cleavers and a revolver. Lee was unconscious, motionless on the tarmac.

What followed was a frenzied and brutal attack. Adebolajo tried to decapitate Lee with a meat cleaver, striking blow after blow. Adebolale joined in, stabbing and slashing at Lee's body.

It was over quickly, but it was devastating. In broad daylight, on a busy South London street, yards from a primary school, a young father and soldier was being hacked to death. Nearby, Mulgrave Primary School went into immediate lockdown.

Teachers ushered pupils back inside and kept them away from the windows. The proximity of young children to such a brutal act was one reason the attack was described in Parliament as an affront to ordinary life. Once Lee was fatally injured, the men dragged his body into the middle of the road.

Passing cars swerved to avoid the scene, with most drivers having to pull over in complete shock. Parents collecting their children from the primary school were suddenly confronted with the sight of a young man's bloodied body laying in the road. They described the chaos of being held back by police as rumours spread through the crowd.

For some, the trauma was twofold, shielding their children from what they had already glimpsed and trying to process it themselves. The barracks itself went into lockdown, with soldiers confined inside and forced to watch events unfold from behind its railings. Many later spoke of the frustration of seeing one of their own killed yards away and being unable to intervene.

And then came words as chilling as the violence. Ade Bellagio, his hands soaked in blood and bright red, addressed bystanders directly. One witness filmed him on a mobile phone as he spoke.

The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. The British, this British soldier, is one. It is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Your people will never be safe. Remove your governments, they don't care about you. The calmness with which he spoke, bloodied cleaver still in hand, only deepened the horror.

For the people who had stumbled across the scene, the shock was paralysing. Some froze at the edges of the cordon of cars, clutching their children's hands or holding onto a random stranger's shoulder to stop them from collapsing. Others dialled 999, trying to describe what they were seeing.

But in the midst of the confusion, chaos and fear, three women showed unbelievable bravery. So Ingrid Loyayu-Kennett, a scout leader from Cornwall, had been on a bus that had pulled up near the scene. At first, she thought there had been a car crash.

Then she saw the knives and the blood. She got off the bus and walked towards one of the attackers, fucking hell, as he stood there with bloodied hands and a cleaver. Quote, I thought, okay, someone is dead, I can't bring him back, but I can't stop anything else from happening.

What a woman! She asked Ade Balajo what he wanted. He told her he was angry about the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan. She didn't flinch, she just kept him talking.

Later, she admitted, quote, I wasn't scared. There was no time to be scared. I was just doing what I thought was right.

While Ingrid spoke to the killers, Amanda Donnelly, 44, and her daughter, Gemini Donnelly Martin, 20, approached Lee's body. They had been driving past when they saw the aftermath of the crash and attack. Amanda told her daughter to stop the car.

She got out and walked towards Lee. Quote, I saw her body lying on the road, and I couldn't just leave him there alone. She later said, I ran over to help him.

I didn't even think about it. I just knew I had to be there with him. Amanda knelt beside Lee and cradled his head.

She spoke softly to him. Quote, I just held him, stroked his back and told him it would be all right. He was still warm.

He was somebody's son. I would do it again. I would do it for anyone.

Gemini followed and stood guard nearby. Quote, it was surreal. She said, I just knew in my heart that I had to do something.

You don't walk past someone like that. You stop. And she helped shield Lee from further indignity, even stopping people from filming him.

Amanda later said, quote, I treated him like he was my own son. And they stayed with him until police and help arrived. When Lynn Rigby later saw the images of the woman beside her son, she wept.

Quote, I couldn't be there with Lee, but those women were, and I'll never forget that. Remarkably during this time, the attackers did not threaten passers-by. They even told people that they had no intention of harming women and children, but their calmness, bloodied knives still in hand, talking as if the killing had been routine, made the atmosphere more chilling, not less.

And for around 10 minutes, Willage stood suspended between ordinary life and something unimaginable, waiting for armed police to arrive. Because the first police to arrive were unarmed officers who pulled up at around 2.29 PM. They set up a cordon, but could do little more than contain the scene.

The killers, still pacing with weapons in hand, showed no sign of fleeing. And as one of the first unarmed officers later told the court, arriving at artillery place was like stepping into a nightmare. The killers standing calmly over their victim, bloodied weapons still in their hands.

Five minutes later at 2.34 PM, an armed response unit reached artillery place. What happened next was captured on CCTV and mobile phone footage. Adebolajo, cleaver raised above his head, ran directly at the officers.

Adebwale brandished a revolver, which was later found to be a blank firing gun. And it also malfunctioned when he tried to use it. But they basically just stormed at the police.

And the police opened fire. Both men were hit and dropped to the ground. Within 40 seconds, the same officers who had pulled the trigger were kneeling beside the attackers giving first aid.

Adebolajo and Adebwale were alive. They were taken to hospital under armed guard. Woolage would never feel ordinary again.

Fucking hell. The immediate aftermath was intense. Within minutes of the shots being fired, Woolage was obviously completely locked down.

Police coordinates went up around artillery place and Wellington Street, cutting off traffic and holding back hundreds of stunned onlookers. Commuters and passers-by were redirected through side streets and shepherded away from the scene. Buses stood still.

Shops pulled down their shutters. And everywhere residents looked, they saw flashing blue lights. A part of South London that was already bruised by the 2011 riots now felt like a war zone.

Witnesses spoke of the sheer disbelief they experienced. It was like a film scene, except it was right here. For hours after, residents gathered at the edges of the cordon trying to process what had just happened.

But they weren't the only ones processing images of the scene. The shaky mobile phone footage of Michael Adebolajo, Cleaver in Hand, was uploaded and broadcast to the world. By early evening, it was leading news on it was leading every news bulletin in the country.

The sight of a man calmly delivering a political manifesto, his hands dripping with blood, was unlike anything most viewers had ever seen on British television. And the images traveled fast from phones to newsrooms and to social media, fuelling both shock, fear and outrage. This wasn't violence in a distant war zone.

It was bullage in broad daylight on a Wednesday. Fucking hell. Flowers were laid near the barracks railings almost immediately with handwritten notes pushed through the cordon gaps.

Neighbours who had never met stood side by side lighting candles. By nightfall, artillery place had become a crime scene and a memorial. But whilst Woolage was reeling, Lee's family in Middleton was still unaware.

What? News of a soldier killed in London was breaking across every channel, but it would be hours before his name was officially confirmed. Lynn Rigby was at work at a call centre when her daughter Sarah rang her. Quote, have you seen the news about the soldier? Lynn hadn't.

She turned on the TV. She saw the street, the boots, the hoodie. She knew.

But the police didn't come that night. Not straight away. Lee hadn't been formally identified.

His phone couldn't be found. The family called round friends, called the barracks, called colleagues. No one had seen him, but no one could tell them for certain.

Quote, we were just in limbo. Lynn later said, waiting, hoping, but in your gut, you already know. Those hours remained etched into her memory.

The helplessness of watching rolling coverage, fearing the worst, but clinging onto the hope that it wasn't her son. And it wasn't until approximately 12 hours later that the knock on the door came. Army officers and police were at her door, bringing confirmation of Lynn's worst nightmare.

The devastation was immediate, but so too was the determination to speak of Lee as more than a victim of terror. In the days that followed, the Rigby family gave their first public statement. Lynn described her son as a hero, but also as a loving son, husband, father, brother and uncle, and the best friend anyone could have.

His sister spoke of his humour, his cheekiness and his pride in being a dad. It was a reminder, at a time when headlines were filled with bloodied mobile footage and political sound bites, that at the centre of all of this was a family in pieces. And by the next morning, Woolage was the focus of a nation in shock.

Flags flew at half-mast, tributes poured in from political leaders and military figures, and the Queen issued a statement of condolence to Lee's family. Prime Minister David Cameron cutting shore to trip to Paris, described the killing as not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life, but also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country. The then Home Secretary Theresa May called an emergency meeting of COBRA, the government's crisis response team.

Security was tightened around barracks and bases nationwide. The tributes were deeply felt, but they were also laced with unease. This wasn't an attack on a military base overseas, or a plot foiled by MI5 at the last moment.

It was a soldier walking down a London street targeted for what he represented. For many, it felt like a new chapter of terror in Britain. And almost immediately, the political conversation turned to why? Questions about MI5's surveillance of the killing of the killers, sorry, about online medicalisation and about whether enough had been done to prevent such an attack all began to surface.

But even before those debates could take hold, another response was building, and this time from the streets. If politicians called for unity, the streets told a different story. Within 24 hours of Lee Rigby's murder, far-right groups like the English Defence League and the British National Party seized on the killing as proof of their long-running narrative that Islam itself was to blame.

In Woolwich, small groups of men gathered near the barracks. Clashes broke out with police as bottles were thrown. Elsewhere across the country, namely Newcastle, Manchester, elsewhere in London and Sheffield, hastily organised demonstrations followed.

Mosques were attacked, bricks through windows, graffiti scrawled and threats shouted. The Met confirmed that in the first five days after the killing, 71 anti-Muslim hate crimes were reported, a surge far above normal levels. In the 10 days that followed the murder, police recorded nearly 200 Islamophobic incidents nationwide.

Fucking hell. Multiple mosques had been vandalised, women in hijabs were abused in the street, threats phoned into community centres. It was one of the sharpest spikes in anti-Muslim hate crimes Britain had seen at the time.

The atmosphere was fibrous. In some towns, anti-fascist groups turned out too, leading to tense stand-offs between the rival crowds. The sense of collective mourning was quickly contaminated by confrontation.

The EDL claimed that they were standing up for Britain, but their marches looked less like remembrance and more like provocation. Beer cans thrown, Nazi salutes captured on camera, chants about Muslim scum. Anti-fascist groups did turn out in response, leaving the streets across England in a tense standoff.

And for Muslim communities, the message was chilling. Leaders condemned the killing of Lee Rigby unequivocally, reminding the public that Adi Balajo and Adi Bawale did not speak for Islam. But many ordinary Muslims described feeling suddenly extremely unsafe in their own neighbourhoods.

As one Woolwich shopkeeper put it, quote, we were grieving too, but overnight people looked at us like we were the enemy. The murder had not only taken Lee Rigby's life, it had become a lightning rod for anger, division, and simmering Islamophobia that groups like EDL were all too ready to exploit. Just two years earlier, in the summer of 2011, South London had been one of the epicenters of the riots that swept across England.

In Lewisham, Catford and Woolwich town centre, shops were smashed, fires set, and young people clashed with police. For many residents, those nights left scars, a sense of being let down by authority, a fragile trust in institutions and of communities under pressure. The EDL had been circling South London before Lee Rigby's murder.

Their marches often carried an anti-Islamic edge, tapping into anxieties about immigration and identity. In Woolwich, they found an opportunity to turn grief and shock into hate and anger. Demonstrations weren't about honouring Lee so much as using his name to legitimise their politics.

When the far-right group descended, the memory of the riots collided with a new wave of unrest. For residents in Woolwich, it felt as though they were once again a stage of conflict that they hadn't asked for, where ordinary families, already traumatised by the murder, now lived with the fear of more violence spilling into their neighbourhood. For the Rigby family, watching these demonstrations unfold was almost another loss.

Lynn Rigby spoke out firmly against groups like the EDL, making it clear that her son's name should never be used to justify hate. Later in 2015, when the EDL planned a commemorative march in Woolwich, she publicly objected, writing that she was upset and disgusted by their use of Lee's image. And to see organisations using Lee's picture breaks my heart.

Lee would not want people attacking others in his name. The group moved the valley elsewhere. Fucking hell.

Her words cut through the noise. A mother staking a moral claim over her son's memory. And yet they also underscored the wider tragedy in Woolwich.

Grief became public property and for some, a platform for hate that Lee and his family never wanted to offer. The Rigby family's grief was not just private. It had to be defended.

In the years after Woolwich, far-right groups repeatedly tried to co-opt Lee's name as a banner for their cause. His picture appeared on placards at demonstrations by the EDL, BMP and Britain First without permission. Online, Justice for Lee was turned into a slogan for anti-Muslim campaigns, twisting a family's pain into propaganda.

At one point, even t-shirts and merchandise were advertised using Lee's image. Attempts that the family condemned as exploitation. Lee Rigby again had to publicly condemn this appropriation.

Quote, my son's memory is not your tool. Lee would not want hate done in his name. He served all of Britain, not just one version of it.

The Rigby family's objections went beyond public statements. On more than one occasion, they were forced to seek legal routes to stop Lee's name and image being used. And again, it's just a reminder that their grief wasn't allowed to just be personal, but it was constantly hijacked and repurposed, forcing them into battles no bereaved family should have to face.

Yeah, too fucking right. And the way Lee's death was twisted into an anti-Muslim Malian cry stood in stark contrast to how Muslim leaders and communities had responded in the immediate aftermath. From Woolwich mosques to national organizations, the message had been consistent.

This was murder, not Islam. Imams condemned the killing unequivocally, stressing that the Quran forbids such acts. For them, Adebuwalejo and Adebuwale were not martyrs or representatives of their faith.

They were criminals who had desecrated it. And yet, for the public trying to make sense of Woolwich, the question of who these men were and how they came to commit such an atrocity became unavoidable. The faces were suddenly everywhere, not just as attackers, but as symbols in a broader battle over identity belonging and extremism in Britain.

The men who killed Lee Wrigby were not anonymous figures who emerged from nowhere. Both had histories that threaded through South East London. Both had been on the radar of security services and both had carried a grievance that they claimed justified their violence.

But their backgrounds were also marked by instability, personal, social and mental health, which made the path to radicalization easier to exploit. Michael Adebuwalejo was born in 1984 to Nigerian parents who had moved to the UK in the 80s. He grew up in Romford, Essex, in a family described as hardworking and devout Christian.

At Marshall's Park School, teachers remembered him as diligent and polite, a nice lad by most accounts. But in his late teens, Adebuwalejo converted to Islam and began to drift into increasingly political circles. He took the name Majid, meaning one who struggles.

What began as a personal faith quickly hardened into ideology. By the early 2000s, Adebuwalejo was gravitating towards extremist preachers such as Omar Bakru Muhammad and Anjem Chaudhry. Both were leading figures in what began as a personal faith quickly hardened into ideology.

By the early 2000s, Adebuwalejo was gravitating towards extremist preachers such as Omar Bakru Muhammad and Anjem Chaudhry. Both were leading figures in Al Mahajiran, a banned Islamist organization openly glorified Jihad and praised Osama bin Laden. Adebuwalejo became a regular at their demonstrations, often captured on camera, holding placards or speaking into a megaphone.

Friends from school later expressed shock at the transformation. The quiet boy they'd known now rallying against British foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, Adebuwalejo travelled to Kenya allegedly with the intention of crossing the border into Somalia to join Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group.

He was arrested by Kenyan Security Services and deported back to the UK. His family later said that this episode marked a turning point. After his return, he seemed angrier, more volatile, consumed by a belief that Britain itself was his enemy.

From then on, he was firmly on MI5's radar. Well, you would hope so, wouldn't you? Oh. Michael Adebuwale, born in 1991, had a different trajectory.

Phrased in Greenwich by his mother after his father left the family, he had a more unsettled childhood, shall we say. As a teenager, he was known to local police for low-level trouble, but he was also described as withdrawn and lonely. In his late teens, he too converted to Islam.

For him, unlike Adebuwalejo, the conversion seemed less about political firebrand speeches and demonstrations, and more about belonging. Okay, yeah. So at first, his mum wasn't worried about it.

They weren't really religious. I couldn't find anything that said. With Adebuwalejo's family, they were devout Christians, and it's really well documented.

But I don't think it was like... It was as big of a thing. Yeah, for him. I think it was almost kind of, again, I haven't really got the sources to back this up, but so it's anecdotal.

But it was almost like he'd joined a youth group, kind of thing, or he'd found a hobby, kind of like they were like, all right, like if it gets him out of his bedroom and he's talking to people and stuff. But Adebuwalejo was vulnerable. By his early 20s, doctors were noting signs of paranoia and detachment.

Psychiatrists would later diagnose him with schizoid personality disorder, with suspicions of emerging schizophrenia. Former friends described him as someone searching for identity, easily swayed by stronger personalities. And when he fell into South London's radical networks, he was ripe for manipulation.

And it was in these circles, in Lewisham, Greenwich, and Woolwich mosques, alongside fringe gatherings of al-Mahajaran supporters, the Adebuwale and Adebuwalejo's paths crossed. The two were not lifelong friends, but rather products of the same radical ecosystem. Adebuwalejo was the senior figure, confident, charismatic, already immersed in the rhetoric of jihad.

Adebuwale was younger, less assured, but hungry for certainty. Observers would later suggest that Adebuwalejo effectively mentored Adebuwale, drawing him into a partnership where ideology fused with personal loyalty. Together, the two men formed a volatile pairing.

Adebuwalejo provided the drive, articulate, forceful, and unafraid of confrontation. Adebuwale was quieter, more troubled, but eager to prove himself. On the day of the attack, it was Adebuwalejo who fronted the cameras, delivering the justification, while still holding a bloodied cleaver.

Adebuwale said little, but his role in the killing itself was equally brutal. Security analysts would later frame their actions with the idea of propaganda of the deed. This was not a spontaneous eruption of violence, but a performance designed for maximum impact.

The concept dates back to the 19th century anarchist movements in Europe, which argued that dramatic acts of violence, such as assassinations or bombings, could serve as political theatre, sending a message more powerful than words or pamphlets or demonstrations ever could. Terrorism, in the modern sense, has often followed the same logic. Spectacular violence intended to shock an audience, spread fear, and inspire imitators.

And while it was a textbook case, the attack was deliberately public, carried out in broad daylight, yards from a school, and an act of barracks, and the killers did not flee. They waited for the cameras. Ade Bellagio spoke clearly and calmly to bystanders, almost as if giving a press statement.

His hands read with Lee's blood. The imagery of British soldier in a help for hero's hoodie murdered on a South London street by men invoking foreign wars was carefully chosen to resonate, to provoke anger, division, and headlines. Ade Bellagio himself admitted he expected to be shot dead by police and seemed ready for perceived martyrdom.

And, like, I think that's what makes me not angry, I don't know, but so, like, confused about the reaction from the EDL and the BMP and Britain First is like, can't you see this is what they want? Yeah. Like, they want the more division they can get between, like, quote unquote, ordinary members of the public and then Muslim members of the public, the more members of the Muslim faith are going, or, like, the communities are going to fall into radicalisation because they're going to feel hated, so therefore they are going to hate. And it's, you're only perpetrating the message, you're giving them what they want.

You're giving them what they want. Anyway, like, let's be honest here, I'm going to say this with, and I'm not even going to put a letter or caveat myself, members of the EDL, Britain First and all of that are stupid. So they don't understand the nuances of what they're doing.

They are literally cavemen who have one brain cell between a lot of them who think that, like, oh, if we bang our sticks hard enough, someone will listen to us and actually will change shit. Fuck off. You're doing nothing but playing into their hands.

You're doing nothing but perpetuating hate and fear and violence, and you are worthless little people who need to bugger off. And that is a hill I will die on. But the two men did not achieve, said, quote, martyrdom.

Yep. They did not die that day. The decision of armed officers to shoot to incapacitate rather than to kill meant that instead of becoming instant martyrs, both men survived to stand trial.

That choice prevented their act from becoming the kind of closed-circle spectacle that propaganda of the deed depends on. Instead, their motivations, histories and failures of intervention would be scrutinised in court and in public inquiries for years to come. So as the shock of Willage rippled outward, the question many asked was not just why, but how.

How had two men, already known to the authorities, managed to carry out such a brazen act of terrorism in broad daylight? The truth was uncomfortable. Both Adebolajo and Adebuale had crossed the radar of security and policing services long before the 22nd of May 2013. Adebolajo had been a familiar face in extremist circles for over a decade by this point.

Photographed at rallies, arrested in protests, one of which was outside the Orbele, and stopped by police internationally and in the UK. Adebolajo had been monitored on and off since his late teens, flagged as a vulnerable young man drifting into extremism. Both men had featured in counter-terrorism case files.

Neither was a stranger. Yet they weren't considered top-tier threats. And in the year after 9-11 and 7-7, MI5 had been swamped with leads.

Thousands of individuals under varying levels of surveillance. Resources had to be prioritised. Adebolajo and Adebuale were judged at different points as peripheral, concerning but not on media.

Other cases involving active bomb plots and networks took precedence. After Woolwich, those judgements came under fierce scrutiny. A Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, ISC, after Woolwich, those judgements came under fierce scrutiny.

A Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, the ISC, inquiry concluded in 2014 that there had been multiple missed opportunities to intervene. MI5 had intercepted online communications in which Adebolajo discussed violence they had with a foreign extremist. Adebolajo's repeated involvement with prescribed groups had been logged, but bureaucratic delays, miscommunication between agencies and the sheer scale of monitoring work meant that neither man was placed under constant surveillance.

The ISC report also noted the role of technology companies. At the time of the murder, Adebuale had been exchanging messages on Facebook, which, had they been flagged, might have raised massive alarms about his intent. But those exchanges were encrypted, hidden from British agencies.

The Woolwich case became a touchstone in later debates about online surveillance, encryption, and the responsibilities of platforms to detect extremist content. Critics accused MI5 of systemic failure. Why had someone as visible as Adebolajo, shouting through megaphones at rallies, detained abroad for suspected terrorist activity, not triggered some kind of sustained action? Why had Adebolajo, with his history of instability, not received closer intervention? MI5 defended its position, stressing that hindsight painted a clearer picture than the reality of thousands of fragmented leads.

Quote, We can't follow everyone, one former officer explained. We have to make hard calls. Hmm.

In their view, Woolwich was not the result of negligence, but of tragic prioritisation, a brutal act carried out not by an organised cell, but by two men radicalised enough to act alone. The Rigby family were not comforted. Lynn Rigby later said, quote, to know that they were being watched, that people knew who they were, makes it harder.

You think, why wasn't more done? Why wasn't Miley protected? The Woolwich murder reshaped the security conversation in Britain. It wasn't about complex bomb plots or overseas networks. It was about so-called lone actors, individuals or small pairs radicalised online or infringed communities willing to use low-tech methods like knives or cars to sow terror.

That shift would define counter-terrorism policy for years to come. So by late 2013, attention had shifted from how the attack happened to how justice would be done. The intelligence inquiries had raised hard questions about prevention, but in the Old Bailey, the issue was accountability.

Two men, alive because armed officers had chosen to incapacitate rather than kill, would now face a jury. The trial opened at the Old Bailey on the 18th of November 2013, presided over by Mr Justice Sweeney. It drew huge public and media attention and security was tight.

This was no ordinary murder trial. It was a case that symbolised the threat of homegrown terrorism. Armed officers were stationed inside and outside the Old Bailey.

Metal detectors screened every entrance and the dock itself was reinforced. Opening for the prosecution, prosecutor Richard Whittam Casey told the jury, quote, this case is not about religion. It is about two young men who decided to kill another in broad daylight in a manner that can only be described as savage.

And the evidence was overwhelming. CCTV captured the TIGA mounting the curb. Witnesses described the knives and cleavers.

Forensic experts testified to the sheer brutality of the wounds. Mobile phone footage showed Ade Bellagio's bloodied address to the camera. More than 50 witnesses gave evidence, including police officers and the women who had intervened or gone to Leeside.

Ade Bellagio chose to defend himself supported by legal counsel. He admitted to killing Lee Rigby but claimed it was not murder but an act of war. He described himself as a soldier and from the dock he said, quote, I am a soldier.

This is a war. I do not regret what I did. I regret that it took so long.

Fucking oh okay. He went on to argue that British soldiers had killed Muslims abroad. So he was justified in striking back.

His courtroom behaviour was as defiant as his words. He was smiling, waving and at one point kind of extravagant extravagantly kissed a copy of the Quran right in front of the jury. During sentencing he shouted al-Aqba and he had to be restrained by guards multiple times.

Adebwale in contrast was quiet and often completely expressionless. His legal team raised psychiatric evidence with doctors diagnosing him finally with paranoid schizophrenia. But expert witnesses agreed he was still more than fit to stand trial and be held criminally responsible.

He rarely spoke and at one point he had to be removed from the dock after collapsing with a seizure. Although details on this are sparse and I couldn't find anything other than he had a seizure. Right okay.

There's no explanation for what that was okay. On the 19th of December 2013, after just 90 minutes of deliberation the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for murder. Both men were acquitted of attempting to murder a police officer relating to their charge against armed officers at the same.

Right okay. On the 26th of February 2014 Mr Justice Sweeney handed down sentences that reflected both the savagery of the act and its terrorist purpose. He said the murder had been a bloodbath designed to achieve maximum impact.

He set out the facts in detail the planning and the purchase of knives reminding the court that on the day of the murder the pair carried eight different bladed weapons between them along with a handgun. Christ. He stated how Lee Rigby suffered catastrophic injuries from the car impact namely five broken vertebrae and five broken ribs.

He went on to describe how Adebolajo had then hacked repeatedly at Lee's neck with a meat cleaver in an attempt to decapitate him whilst Adebuale stabbed him in the chest in a frenzied fashion with severe force. The judge described how they dragged Lee's body into the road to bring traffic to a halt and achieve maximum effect. How they brandished the handgun at bystanders and even handed out pre-prepared written statements that sought to justify their actions.

Both the judge said had intended to be killed by armed police so as to not face justice. Justice Sweeney contrasted their cruelty by highlighting the bravery of those who intervened. Quote Your sickening and pitiless conduct was in stark contrast to the compassion and bravery of those who tried to help Fusilier Rigby and to calm the situation.

He concluded that the murder had been committed for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, radical or ideological cause and carried a clear terrorist connection. In sentencing remarks Mr Justice Sweeney made clear that this was not simply a murder case but a terrorist spectacle. He described the attack as designed to influence the government and intimidate the public stressing that both men had deliberately chosen a soldier whether in uniform or not as a symbolic target.

Michael Adebuale as the suspected leader and instigator were sentenced to a whole life order and he will never be released and he will die in prison. Michael Adebuale suspected of playing a lesser role and with consideration of his mental health conditions was sentenced to life with a minimum term 45 years. Outside the court the Rigby family read a statement.

Quote We are satisfied that justice has been done but no amount of justice will bring Lee back. Our son was taken from us in the most horrific way imaginable. Nothing can ever make up for that.

Lee was a dedicated soldier but above all he was a loving son husband, father, brother and uncle and also a friend to so many. He was loyal, funny, kind and brave and his loss leaves a gaping hole in all of our lives. We are very proud of Lee and we will always be proud of him.

He will be remembered with love by everyone who knew him. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us through this ordeal. The kindness shown by friends, family and even complete strangers has been a great comfort.

We ask that our privacy is respected now and in the future as we try to rebuild our lives. Lynn later explained that she had not cried in court. Quote I did not want them to see me cry.

For her justice was about accountability not vengeance but outside the obelie the rawness of the family's grief was unmistakable. However, the convictions did not close this story. If anything, they sharpened the questions that had been circling circling since the afternoon of the 22nd of May.

How could two men already known to security and policing services carry out such an attack in broad daylight? Yeah, exactly. So in the November of 2014 the ISC published the full report. It concluded that while there was no single catastrophic failure there had been multiple missed opportunities to stop the attack.

Along with the previously mentioned times that both men had come to the attention of different agencies in the UK and internationally one of the areas most condemned and deliberated about is how Adebarale was able to send a Facebook message seven months before the murder in which he spoke openly of wanting and planning to kill a soldier. What? The ISC said had MI5 had access to that exchange at the time it is possible that action could have been taken to prevent the murder of Fusilirigbi. Yeah.

The report also revealed in one of the most shocking admissions that MI5 had allegedly considered or attempted to recruit Ade Bellagio as an informant after his return to the UK from being arrested at the Somali border. This is a claim that Ade Bellagio himself had made as well. Right.

The committee did not find evidence of improper conduct but it did highlight poor record keeping and the difficulty of deciding whether to treat him as a threat or a potential asset. Christ. Hang on.

No, no we'll do it later. We'll do it later. The case became a touchstone in debates over digital surveillance.

The ISC criticised Facebook for failing to detect or pass on Adebarale's messages calling it a blindingly obvious threat. Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain could not allow terrorists a safe space to communicate and the government considered powers to compel tech companies to share encrypted data. Privacy advocates warned this risked mass surveillance but the momentum for reform was clear.

At the same time ministers expanded PREVENT the government's counter radicalisation strategy and the aftermath of Woolwich PREVENT and its associated channel programme which works with individuals deemed at risk of radicalisation were placed on a statutory footing in the Counterterrorism and Security Act of 2015. Schools, NHS trusts, prisons and local councils were now legally obliged to identify and refer people showing signs of radicalisation. Officials framed it as a necessary step.

Theresa May, then Home Secretary, told the Commons that the Rigby case showed the need for earlier intervention and stronger community safeguarding. But PREVENT was deeply divisive. Muslim organisations in particular argued that it fostered suspicion disproportionately targeting their communities and creating a climate of mistrust.

The Cardiff University Review of Community Impacts found that many British Muslims felt they were seen less as citizens than as potential threats in the wake of Woolwich. For security services Woolwich redefined the nature of the threat. This was not 7-7 with an organised cell and explosives.

It was what Counterterrorism analysts became calling low-resource, high-impact terrorism. Lone or paired attackers using knives, cars and ideology to devastating effect. And that shift would shape policing, MI5 priorities and counter-extremism strategy for the decade that followed.

Both men were terrorists. That fact is not in doubt. Full stop, yep.

The Woolwich attack was an act of terrorism, planned and deliberate. Adebawale was no less a murderer than Adebawale Fuck me. Adebawale was no less a murderer than Adebawale.

But alongside his radicalisation there was another layer. His long-documented history of mental illness that shaped but does not excuse his path into violence. Yeah.

So he was 22 when he helped to kill Lee Rigby. He had grown up in Greenwich raised largely by his mother after his father had left. His early years were really unsettled as I described earlier.

And as a teenager he had drifted into low-level trouble with the police. By his late teens when he converted into Islam it's kind of... In his case it became a vehicle for belonging and certainty. And that search for identity later made him just a natural follower for men like Adebawale.

Medical concerns about Adebawale predate Bullage. In 2011 he was referred to psychiatric services and doctors noted emerging signs of schizophrenia. After his arrest court-appointed psychiatrists diagnosed him with schizoid personality disorder and suspected paranoid schizophrenia.

And the picture was of a young man vulnerable to paranoia detached from others increasingly susceptible to extremist propaganda. But you know the court was unequivocal. Adebawale's illness did not absolve him in any way.

Experts found him fit to stand trial with a full understanding of what he had done and that it was against the law. His mental health was taken into account but only as mitigation at sentencing. It was one reason he received the minimum term of 45 years rather than a whole life order.

But it was never going to shield him from conviction or you know. In July of 2014 a few months after sentencing Adebawale was transferred from prison to Broadmoor High Security Psychiatric Hospital under the Mental Health Act. His case continues to be cited in debates about how mental health vulnerabilities intersect with radicalisation.

But for Lee Rigby's family and for the jury that convicted him those vulnerabilities did not change the fundamental truth that Adebawale was a willing participant in an act of terrorism that ended a young man's life. Just kind of as a side note the only other info I could find about whether he was still in Broadmoor or had moved location again. I don't think he did.

I think he was I think he's still in Broadmoor. But in 2021 it was documented that he was transferred to a medical hospital after suffering with severe effects from Covid. Oh okay interesting.

The murder of Lee Rigby left scars that cannot be measured in sentencing remarks or policy reforms. It was a moment that cut into the public psyche brutal, senseless and seared into the memory of a generation. But from that loss also came determination to honour Lee not only for how he died but for how he lived.

In the years after Woolwich Lynn Rigby channelled her grief into action. Alongside other family members she founded the Lee Rigby Foundation dedicated to supporting bereaved military families and veterans struggling with trauma and mental health. The foundation provides respite breaks, welfare support and advocacy ensuring that no family endures such loss in isolation.

I couldn't save Lee Lynn has said but maybe I can help save someone else. Beyond respite breaks the Lee Rigby Foundation has campaigned for better mental health provision for veterans and families. Lynn has spoken openly about PTSD saying that many servicemen come home with invisible wounds every bit as painful as the ones you can see.

The foundation has become both a refuge and a voice pushing government and military bodies to do more. And as I said earlier kind of almost immediately after the attack flowers began to appear near the barracks railings in Woolwich and by nightfall artillery place was both a crime scene and a shrine. In Woolwich the first anniversary saw hundreds gather in a silent tribute.

Veterans stood shoulder to shoulder with local residents and church and mosque leaders laid wreaths side by side. For a community that had been torn between grief and fear it was a symbolic act of unity. Each year since people had gathered each year since people have gathered on the 22nd of May veterans, neighbors, strangers who never met Lee but felt the shock of his loss.

In Lee's hometown of Middletown of Middleton a memorial garden was opened in his honour funded by public donations. His name is also inscribed at the National Memorial Oboratum. Yes, yep, yep, I know it.

Alongside other servicemen and women who died while serving their country. Visitors often leave poppies, Manchester United scarves or handwritten notes at his inscription. A reminder that his story still resonates far beyond Woolwich or Middletown.

In Woolwich a simple memorial bench sits near the site of the attack. A place to sit, reflect and remember. Football clubs also played their part in remembering Lee.

Though a passionate Manchester United supporter Lee's memory was of honoured across the football community. Charlton Athletic dedicated a memorial plaque at the valley. Millwall paid tribute at the den.

Vigils and minutes silences were also held elsewhere including in Cornwall and Manchester obviously showing how far his story had travelled. And these just shouldn't matter. Symbols of unity in places often divided by rivalry.

Yeah, exactly. The Woolwich attack has been revisited in documentaries, news retrospectives and even a BBC Radio 4 drama documentary which sought to balance journalistic rigour with emotional resonance. These cultural retellings have kept the case in public memory.

Berlin has always urged that the focus stay on her son and not the men who killed him. For Lin and her family Lee is still a presence. She still keeps the photo in the front room and speaks to him every evening and sets his place at the table like I said.

Public memorials matter but for the Rigby's the most powerful legacy is quieter. Conversations with a son, brother and father who should still be there. Lee Rigby was not a headline.

He was not a symbol. He was not a cautionary tale. He was a young man with a cheeky grin, a devoted mum, a little boy who adored him and a future that should have stretched for decades.

He joined the army not for glory but because it felt like a calling. He came home in one piece from Afghanistan but then on an ordinary South London street his life was taken not by accident or chance but because two men decided his death could serve their course. The murder in Woolwich was shocking not only for its brutality but for its context.

It was not seven-seven. It wasn't bombs on the underground or a distant battlefield. It was broad daylight outside a primary school minutes from a busy station.

It ruptured the sense that terror was something that happened over there. It also exposed deep fractures intelligence gaps failures to act and warning signs that we hear about again and again and the growing reality of low-tech high-impact terrorism. For the Rigby family justice was done in court but it brought no peace.

The grief has to be lived publicly defended against those who sought to twist Ali's name for their own agendas. Lynn Rigby's refusal to allow her son's memory to be weaponised is itself part of his legacy. So too is the foundation that bears his name the vigils that continue each May and the quiet daily acts of remembrance inside his family home.

The Woolwich murder forced Britain to reckon with uncomfortable truths the vulnerabilities in its security services the dangers of online radicalisation the thin line between grievance and extremism and the toxic opportunism of far-right groups eager to turn mourning into mobilisation. And yet it is also a story of resilience of three women who stepped forward when others froze of a community that lit candles instead of torches of a mother who turned private devastation into public service. More than a decade has passed and the world has changed again and again but the image that should endure is not of two men with bloodied knives or even the police cordons in Woolwich it is of Lee Rigby himself drumming in uniform smiling in photos living the ordinary and extraordinary life of a son a dad a friend a soldier and that is where the story ends and that is who should be remembered.

That was um that was a story it's heavier than that just a little bit I mean thank you first of all very well researched I thought many many of your points were very salient and agree with you wholeheartedly. The biggest thing for me was that I've said this to you before about other cases there's certain ones that like because everyone knows everyone knows the Lee Rigby story everyone knows it everyone knows the Damelola Taylor story everyone knows all of these and then when you actually listen to it like that you realize you do not know that story like you know what you remember of the headlines yeah rather than the actual ins and outs of the case because I was adamant that he was in uniform and I was adamant that he was outside the barracks not walking back to them I think that doesn't it's not helped by the fact that obviously all the photos in the press are him in his regalia yes yeah so I think I just automatically assumed that that meant he must have been like that when it happened yeah I know what you mean but yeah I think that that's that's one of the first things I think the I stand by all of my points about the EDL I think there's something about I'm loathe to say on balance or anything like that with the Mark Duggan stuff kicked off and when the riots in 2011 kicked off yeah which I'm sure we'll probably do some sort of episode well we can't do Duggan no but we can reference him and talk about the riots um like there were areas of South London that were being targeted for affluence yeah and there was a level of protection basically let's just not beat around the bush in Altam the EDL came out in force and protected homes and residents of Altam from looting and writing and I think they did a lot to slightly improve their reputation in the area because of that I suppose again I'm not it's hard I'm not trying to say on balance because it's not my political leaning nor my really my opinion as such but not everyone is entirely bad all of the time maybe is what I'm trying to say I think there'll be residents of South London that remember that might have a difference of opinion a small like you know yeah okay we're not all human beings are not single-faceted but I just I don't know maybe just in the the sort of environment that we're currently living in in this country as well with this rise of sort of I'm gonna say as it is with the rise of sort of far right ideology and with more and more people thinking in these negative ways about anyone who is other I struggled to like someone from the EDL could like come along and I don't know I've fallen over and they could come along and help me up and I would be grateful to them for their help and assistance in that particular instance it doesn't it wouldn't then make me go yeah so I agree with you politically actually the EDL are lovely uh no that one person may have been kind in that one moment but I can guarantee you that if I had been a black woman he would not have stopped to help me up so yeah I think I don't know it's just really I find that one aspect really kind of maybe a bit confronting I think maybe that's why I'm a bit hesitant about talking about it like because of that one scenario you know we were one of the houses that was protected and our neighbours were a house that was targeted by rioters yeah and it was terrifying it was fucking terrifying and you know so I suppose any way in which you know I don't agree with conscription but I'm glad there's an army yeah yeah when it protects me yeah I don't know I don't know what I'm trying to say I feel like I've dug myself into a hole here where I'm like oh Hannah's joined the far right Hannah is actually Nigel Fudd you didn't know no I get what you're saying again I think that it is it's all multifaceted isn't it but I think it's the same as we can't I suppose what I've done here is inadvertently proved the points that I actually I know I've disproved the point that I'm trying to make which is that like so if we go back to this case and we think about the two Michaels I'm not going to try and do their last names because I won't be able to you did it expertly but if you think about the people who perpetrated this they're saying that like you know we should be allowed to kill a soldier on British soil because British soldiers are killing Muslims on Afghan soil like okay but this soldier isn't so I suppose you can't tell everyone with the same brush it's the same as like you can't say to the EDL oh yeah it's all Muslims it's definitely not it's 100% not and any idiot could see that but what I've just done is inadvertently proven myself as the idiot he says that all the EDL are the same but do you know I still think it's a hill I'll die on but no I think it's fascinating that I think it's really upsetting actually that Lee has become this symbol of hate in a way I think that's what Lynn is so vehemently and continues to still vehemently fight against because he wasn't and it's and I think as well there's like this weird thing where like a lot of people have I don't know again if this is just me having worked in pubs for years and years and years but there's like you have a certain perception of a squaddie in quotes and what they're like I also dated one very no but did you? yeah the prick oh yeah yeah that one but man I'm brave forgot he was a squaddie but you know people have a lot of misconceptions I suppose about squaddies and about soldiers in general and about people in the sort of armed forces and I think that that's inherently I would just think there was a big assumption that every soldier that had been stationed out in Afghanistan came back hating all Muslims and hating Islam and that is just it's just not the case fundamentally incorrect yeah like you know if you blame every individual soldier for the act of war then fuck me exactly but it's like you've got one I don't understand the but I suppose it's because I'm not an extremist I don't understand the mentality that is something is happening over there that's completely unrelated to what I'm about to do but I continuously link it like there is that's not a justification you killing somebody just because they are a white assumed to be a soldier well I think there's also the added layer of there not being this army of which the two Michaels proposed they were a part of yeah they were soldiers of we are soldiers this is a war there is no you're not conscripted into any army that recognises you as a soldier yeah so that's another difference yeah exactly it's it's just yeah it's a lot of again I'm trying to understand and I don't think you can understand terrorism in its no true true but it is like it was quite interesting what you were saying about the the fact that this attack kind of changed the way that policing for terrorism what happened for sort of 10 years because then if you think about it the next big terrorist attacks that we had in this country were Westminster Bridge and London Bridge and again that that low what was it high impact low resource resource terrorism yeah yeah so it is just like one person or a small group of people knives like if you think about the London Bridge so the Borough Market one not the London Bridge one because they had two of them weren't there Westminster was obviously the one guy in the car over Westminster Bridge I was at work opposite Westminster Bridge and that happened and that was you're pregnant I was yeah I was that was quite terrifying especially when you then have loads of armed police who kind of storm into your building yeah and are telling everyone to get away from windows and you're in a building that has many many windows but yeah so so that he was a bloke in a car and we saw how much devastation he caused then Borough Market it's knives again fake bombs Borough Market's horrible yeah and then I have a friend who is a police officer that was on duty oh really that worked oh fuck the Borough Market yeah because that was they had fake bombs didn't they and then the other London Bridge run with the guy with the thing from the big tusk yeah as well it's just it's awful but it is my question has always kind of been with that like how do you not giving the security forces a huge amount of grace but like how do you prepare for one how do you monitor one in one million exactly like this you've got thousands of things this is what they were trying to say like thousands of valid lines of inquiry and you've got known organised cells and at that time that was what was being like that was the hot topic exactly that was what was being looked at yeah and it's like when you get people saying you know like ISIS has claimed responsibility for this but like they that wasn't happening these lone wolf attacks it was very they are acting of their own back they are they may have been radicalised by some of these groups but it's not you know like when seven seven happened or when nine eleven happened nine eleven happens Al-Qaeda are straight away yeah that was us we organised that like seven seven I think was there was something similar I can't remember but these ones it's not you've got these big terrorist groups being like nope not one of us you know don't know I don't know I didn't look too hard and too there's a lot of horrible shit out there and trying to be very respectful of what the Rigby family have publicly stated which is you know wanting the story to be about him not about prescribed organisations or lone wolves or like so not wanting to delve too deep into it but like there is it's not just been co-opted by the far right it also has been somewhat co-opted by the other extremist groups I don't know there's just a level of horror to it I think there's two things one that I suppose until I started researching it I really kind of had to question myself I don't think I necessarily saw the Rigby's murder as an act of terrorism at the time like I don't know if my brain made that connection like I kind of I knew it was but also not quite because it wasn't a plane into a building or like I think it oh no that's terrorism this is murder yeah no this is a murderous act of terrorism like this is an act of terror and I that was quite eye-opening and it also is like that you know you're saying about how do you monitor everyone and then you kind of spiral out and this is it kind of I went into a bit of a thing about it and I was like I'm not going to do this I'm not I can't this in as research into this case like I just can't but there's like the school of thought around conspiracy theorists and especially conspiracy theorists around large or like terror an act of terror and things where it's like your brain cannot comprehend the level of emergency the level of alert the level of insecurity that you'd need to fathom to be able to understand that these things happen and can happen and do happen so it's sort of like there's the school of thought is that conspiracy conspiracy theories are comfort blankets right so it's it has to have been an inside job because that is much like 9-11 had to be an inside job because that is much easier to be angry and to fight against and to call everybody else stupid and sheep and all of that than it is to think that there can be that level of hatred that could cause that level of destruction yeah yeah yeah okay interesting and again with the lone wolf thing like I think that's why your brain goes to thinking of Afghanistan like the wars in Afghanistan about the other terrorism that we've experienced as a country because you can't possibly fathom that two men could just wake up one day and do something so atrocious yeah they just decided that they're so like not saying that the links are conspiracy because they're not but like but there is a level of that like us as humans needing to find a way to self suit with like they were mad and this won't happen again and like it was huge terroristic powerhouse of a you know yeah yeah yeah no it's just two normal blokes yeah a normal bloke from Lewisham went and bought some knives and then that was the end of it it's yeah it's just yeah it's just horrific and I think that like you know the the the footage that goes around and like I will have to put a picture of it up but it is fair warning is fucking horrible it was that was the first time I'd seen that level of graphic aftermath like I mean when I was a teenager I used to read things like Bazaar magazine so you would see lots of like oh look this is a crime scene photo from Brazil what was that website where it was like there was a website that went around when we were teenagers rotten.com was it rotten? it was rotten why do I feel like it had like cheese in the title or something anyway I don't know I know there was E-bombs world was another one maybe you'll think E-dam anyway yeah but rotten.com and Bazaar magazine where you could see some of this stuff but like it was never on a mainstream news article and to just see Michael one with his hands covered in blood holding a knife is just it is horrific it's horrible the only thing that I think is a saving grace in all of this is that Lee was unconscious yeah I mean I didn't know that there's a a lot of forensic experts agree that he he probably wouldn't have survived the car right instant like alone yeah anyway just with the nature of the force and the internal trauma from that yeah which yeah it's horrific in and of itself but there's a yeah there is something slightly comforting about the fact that he wasn't aware just because I think the level of fear you would have felt if yeah and then they just get to the women oh my god how brave and how and it's just the people that see it's like a special type of person that can see through horror and to kind of re-centre it as human and I know you know like we'll talk about fight for that freeze and all of that but like when you're confronted with something so just unfathomable unfathomably horrible how you go you don't just freeze and stand there or triming the place or like scream or you go over and you treat Lee as if he was your son like you give him comfort in those moments regardless of what that might mean for your safety yeah exactly you go and talk to the perpetrator to try and distract them because she didn't know no that they weren't going to try and attack anybody else or anything like that she just was like I could try and stop something else from happening like how are you kind of how your brain can function in that way yeah oh god no I'm I would be running an absolute mile I don't know I suppose it's one of those things you'd all like to think you'd be able to do it oh no I fully know I think I'm pretty good at seeing through horror I am but I don't know I'm either oblivious I think I might want to do it but I don't know if I'd ever be brave enough to do it yeah yeah I'm either oblivious or I'm now we're getting the fuck out I have a lot of like spidey senses sometimes that kick in and I am like we don't do this we're not going this way we're not doing that yeah like so I just think my body would just be like absolutely not there's a level of anxiety that we can live with and there's a level that we definitely can't so we're going to run very far in the opposite direction yeah and I suppose the last thing to talk about really is going back to the EDL sorry but she's upset I know I'm sorry but it is this whole idea of like them we're not like what's the word have I locked her? no well yes but like they have so for example help for heroes very good charity helps a lot of people it's now in a lot of circles fairly synonymous with far right ideology you support help for heroes if you've got a George flag flying at you and don't now that is not to say that that is correct because I don't think it actually is correct but it is so you can't like the St George's flag without being oh no no no you can't fly far right now no no definitely not now fucking hell not even at football season we'll just stay quietly in our in our corners and we won't be celebrating being British at all because some dickheads have ruined it but it's uh but that's that's the thing I think it is like trying to and it's the argument of why can't we? why shouldn't we be able to do this? why shouldn't we be able to want to celebrate Britishness and and it's not that you can't it's what it's the level of aggression and tension that you're building around it so it's saying I want to celebrate my ethnicity or my culture and you cannot celebrate to yours yeah exactly that's what you're doing yeah and it's I don't it blows my mind I just don't understand how you can think in that in those terms I don't understand how anyone can think that black and white I don't understand how it can be like no this is good this is bad that's the end of it no like for the amount of I can't imagine what the years between 2001 and to be fair let's face it up to now have been like for anyone who is not white yeah not Christian or atheist like if you are a Muslim there has been so much shit and I cannot imagine the amount of anxiety that that brings the fear you must live in just all the time just being who you are and when we know and I know that all the trevors know this as well but when we know that it is a very small proportion of people who are extreme that is the entire place I've got nothing to do like there's so many misrepresentations of the Quran of is like the Islamic faith in general of being a Muslim of being from a country like any like basically anywhere in the Middle East now like so much misrepresentation misinformation that is just believed so wholeheartedly that it gets to the point where you can't convince these people otherwise no and that in itself is an act of racism or terrorism it's mad and then you think that you've got you know just it just doesn't end it's just horrible well on that note we should point out that's a squeaky door because it was really hot in here so you've got the door open oh yeah I was going to shout at us there was some seagulls earlier as well oh well but no thank you very very much for your telling of the story hope it was okay it was okay it was better than okay it was very very well told well researched balanced thank you darling and I learned a lot so thank you so trevors I suppose that just leaves us with all the nice things we have a website which is sinistersouthpod.co.uk you can go over there and have a look at the cases that we've got coming up this season also have a look at some more in-depth info of the cases we've already done and if you want to go through all two pages of honest source notes they will also be on there when this goes live we have an Instagram and a TikTok both of which are sinister south pod the floating heads will come back I have really made a rod from my own back and I just keep forgetting Fridays roll around and then I'm like oh shit I haven't done that I will keep doing them um I was gonna do I turn up in full face nothing she's already posted don't worry about it we're gonna get Hannah on the floating heads I fucking tried it's not even me anymore so it's not even about perception anymore this is about a monopoly well it's all right I was gonna do one the other day it happened to be on my sister-in-laws what soon to be sister-in-laws Hindu and um and I started recording it and it was a it's a really sad case and then I realized that I was in full festival like sequence all over my face I was like probably you had sequins all over your face do you mean you just had some glitter on no no no no I thought you know those like stickers gems the gems yeah I had all of those well I don't think you had a full sequined face mask on I don't know anything a full sequined balaclava all of that but no but I had I had that on and I was like no so doesn't really give the right deleted that one but yes we will do the floating heads but that is where you will find the floating heads if you so care to go and view them we then have an email address which is in a south podcast to gmail.com where you can come and leave us a nice little note where I've accidentally signed up for two different next door app notification things and I can't get out of it and now I log in every time I go we've got 27 emails oh my god the trevis won a chat and I'm like oh no it's just 12 lost cats and a bin that's gone missing fucks sake so yeah if you want to interrupt Hannah's joy I might just automatically delete it at the moment select all but come and say hello to us over there or gmail and is that it oh we've got the Patreon oh Patreon we've got the Facebook group by the lovely not so lovely trevis unite go over there and have a chat and then we have the Patreon which we haven't forgotten about we are doing stuff behind the scenes with that and we will get our shit together very soon but there are I think there's like five short episodes up there now so if you are a five pounder up you can go and listen to those if you want to just come along and say hi and start the chit chat over there that would be cool because I don't really know what to say on Patreon it's one of those things where I'm like hello hello I'm here now so if anyone wants to come and start a conversation with us and then go over there as well I think that's it isn't it? I think so I think that's it all right then well Sayonara Sayonara indeed that's it for your bumper episode I've got to go and write a case for next week now cool all right then all right chose well we love you very much we love you see you next week goodbye