David Amess' killer scouted Golders Green MP as potential target, court hears

A "committed and radicalised Islamic terrorist" assassinated Conservative MP Sir David Amess after carrying out a reconnaissance trip to the office of a Finchley and Golders Green MP, a court heard today. Ali Harbi Ali, 26, allegedly stabbed Sir David to death at a constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex on 15 October last year. Ali denies murder and preparing for terrorist acts between 1 May 2019 and 28 September last year. Prosecutor Tom Little QC said: ‘This is a case involving a cold and calculated murder. "A murder carried out in a place of worship. "A murder carried out because of a warped and twisted and violent ideology. " It was a murder carried out by a young man who for many years had been planning just such an attack and who was, and is, a committed, fanatical, radicalised Islamist terrorist. "This was therefore we say nothing less than an assassination for terrorist purposes. And it is a crime to which, we say, he has no defence. "This was no spur of the moment decision. "It was not the first time that he had planned an attack or a similar attack to this. Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, also had Ali’s attention, jurors were told. One of Mr Freer’s surgeries was conducted at Ballards Lane in West Finchley. Mr Little said Ali’s Bank card was used on the Northern Line to go from Tufnell Park to West Finchley near the surgery on 17 September 2021, arriving at 2:45pm and leaving at 3:55pm. The prosecutor also said Ali’s mobile used cell-sites close to the surgery at 3:36pm. It is said CCTV captured Ali on Ballards Lane that day. "Indeed he was seen that day by Rachel Shawcross, Mike Freer’s election agent," Mr Little said. "She saw a person matching the defendant’s description staring into the surgery. "Further evidence of the defendant’s criminal interest in Mike Freer MP comes in analysis of his electronic devices. "This reveals that the defendant used the internet to identify that Mike Freer MP held constituency surgeries on Friday 27th August 2021, Friday 3rd September 2021 and importantly, given what I have just told you, Friday 17th September 2021. The trial continues.

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