Tommy Robinson and Jayda Fransen sent messages to the alleged Finsbury Park terror attacker just days before the atrocity, a court has heard.
Prosecutors told Woolwich Crown Court that Darren Osborne was overheard telling drinkers at a pub in Cardiff that he was a “soldier” and claiming “all Muslims are terrorists” the night before the attack.
He denies ramming a hired van into crowds of Muslim worshippers shortly after 12.15am on June 19 last year, killing 51-year-old Makram Ali and injuring nine other victims.
Mr Osborne joined Twitter on 3 June and started following far-right accounts including some linked the far-right extremist group Britain First.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said he received a “direct message” from Ms Fransen, the group’s deputy leader, on the same day but did not detail its contents.
“Hot on the heels of receiving that message on Twitter from Jayda Fransen there’s the London Bridge attack,” he added.
In the hours after that attack, Mr Osborne allegedly searched for more information on Ms Fransen, read her tweets, and looked for information on the killing of Christians in the Philippines.
The following week, he received a communication from Mr Robinson, the former English Defence League leader whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the court heard.
Discussing the Isis-linked terror attack that killed 22 people in Manchester the previous month, it said: “What Salman Abedi did is not the beginning, and it won't be the end.
“There is a nation within a nation forming just beneath the surface of the UK. It is a nation built on hatred, on violence and on Islam.”
Mr Robinson’s message, which was identical to that sent to other supporters, made allegations against Abedi’s local mosque before adding: “It has now been left to us, the ordinary people of the United Kingdom to stand up to hate, to unite and in one voice say 'no more'.”
The message was canvassing support for a march planned for 11 June in Manchester where Mr Robinson said his supporters would “make ourselves impossible to ignore”, jurors were told.
Mr Osborne sat impassive in the dock as the evidence, obtained from Metropolitan Police analysis of two iPhones and an iPad found at his family home, was read to the court.
The second message from Tommy Robinson to Mr Osborne came on 14 June and detailed the campaign for a woman whose rapists were not prosecuted, jurors were told.
“Dear Darren, we know about the terrible crimes committed against [name redacted] of Sunderland...police let the suspects go and why? It is because the suspects are refugees from Syria and Iraq, it’s a national outrage…I know you will be there for her and we will get her the justice she deserves,” it said.
The court heard Mr Osborne also conducted numerous searches around grooming gangs, the murder of Lee Rigby, terror attacks, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, Jeremy Corbyn, bringing back death penalty and debunked footage that claimed to show Muslims celebrating terror attacks in London.
He allegedly read tweets in the wake of the London Bridge attack including one reading: “We have to go back to Churchill, Churchill never told us to hold vigils and sing songs, he told us to fight.”
A local firm from which Mr Osborne is alleged to have rented the van used in the attack said there appeared to be nothing unusual about the transaction and that the defendant, arriving to pick up the van alone, was “polite and well-mannered”.
But drinkers who met Mr Osborne at The Hollybush pub in Cardiff on the evening of 17 June – little over 24 hours before the attack – described him as “mentally agitated and disturbed”.
Sarah Jenkins, a part-time barmaid, said the defendant asked her for a pen while ordering his first pint because he “wanted to write a letter to Parliament”.
“The writing was very scruffy, as if it had been written with passion,” said a statement read to the court.
When Mr Osborne came to the bar later, he allegedly said: “There is a lot of raping and pillaging out there.”
Another barman, Angelo Lamberti, described him as “very strange” but said he felt nothing was untoward until Mr Osborne started talking about the upcoming al-Quds Day pro-Palestinian march to be held in London.
“He said Muslims were going to March in London tomorrow…’all the Muslims are getting together and marching for Isis’,” said a statement read to the court.
Mr Lamberti later overheard a conversation between Mr Osborne and a British Army soldier.
The barman said the defendant claimed he was also a soldier but when asked what regiment he was in, replied: “You’ll find out tomorrow.”
He said he “immediately recognised” Mr Osborne in coverage of the Finsbury Park attack, adding: “I wish I had done more that the time… I wish I had called the police.”
Callum Spencer, a Royal Engineers soldier, said he had overheard Mr Osborne mention the word “terrorists” as he went to the bar to get a drink and challenged his claim of being a fellow soldier.
“He was mumbling but I heard him say ‘I’m going to kill Muslims, your family are going to be Muslims, they’re all terrorists and I’m going to take it into my own hands’,” Mr Spencer told the jury.
Witnesses described Mr Osborne “getting aggressive” after he was challenged to recite the phonetic alphabet to prove he was a soldier, incorrectly claiming the letter B was “bacon”, A was “Andy” and H was “house”.
Meanwhile, another man having a meal with his family told the court Mr Osborne claimed he was writing a letter to Theresa May and then claimed “all Muslims are terrorists”.
Phil Harris said he told the defendant not to air his views in front of his step-children.
Andrew Parker, the pub landlord who later asked Mr Osborne to leave the pub, told the court he also overheard him insulting Jeremy Corbyn and “making comments like like ‘no one is doing anything about it’ and complaining that ‘his brothers and sisters are dying, they’re dying abroad and they’re getting away with it’.”
The trial continues.
