Victim: Lee Rigby (Picture: MoD/PA)

Two men have been convicted of the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

British Muslim converts Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, were found guilty of running the 25-year-old soldier down in a car and hacking him to death with a meat cleaver and knives in broad daylight in front of horrified onlookers on May 22 near Woolwich Barracks.

They lay in wait near the south-east London barracks and picked Fusilier Rigby after assuming he was a soldier because he was wearing a Help for Heroes hooded top and carrying a camouflage rucksack.

Within just three minutes of hitting him at 30-40mph in their Vauxhall Tigra, they had butchered the young father and were dragging his body into the middle of the road.




Adebolajo admitted killing the soldier, but denied murder on the grounds he was a ‘soldier of Allah’ and that Fusilier Rigby was a legitimate target.

Michael Adebolajo (left) and Michael Adebowale will be sentenced next year (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Trial judge Mr Justice Sweeney told jurors – who took just over an hour to convict the pair – this was no legal defence, however, as neither Adebolajo nor Adebowale were able to offer any real defence for the barbaric attack during their trial, which was beset by legal delays.

Adebolajo and Adebowale were shot by police marksmen as they charged towards them when they arrived at the scene.

Adebolajo said he had run at the armed officers while wielding a meat cleaver in order to get shot, and while Adebowale did not give evidence during the four-week trial, his barrister Abbas Lakha QC said he brandished an unloaded gun with the same aim.

Jurors agreed, finding them not guilty of the attempted murder of a police officer.

Mr Justice Sweeney will pass sentence after a key appeal court ruling on the use of whole life terms in January.

Lee Rigby’s family said they were satisfied that justice had been done, saying: ‘This has been the toughest time of our lives. No one should have to go through what we have been through as a family.’