A van driver tried to run over and kill “as many Muslims as possible” in a terror attack outside Finsbury Park mosque in retaliation for Islamic State-inspired atrocities in London and Manchester, a court heard today.

Darren Osborne, 48, drove a hired van into a crowd of worshippers as they left the mosque during Ramadan, killing one man - 51-year-old Makram Ali - and leaving several others seriously injured, it is said.

Mr Ali had already collapsed on to the ground when he was struck by the van, jurors heard, and many of those injured were trying to help him.

It is alleged Osborne, from Cardiff, came to London with a plan to target Muslims, intending to carry out an attack at a march in central London, angered by recent terrorist attacks and child grooming scandals.

When an attack on the march proved too difficult, Osborne allegedly scoured London for a new target, settling on the mosque in Finsbury Park in the early hours of June 19 last year.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said the motive for the “wicked” attack was revealed in a handwritten note allegedly written by Osborne in his local pub before travelling to London.

“Why are their terrorists on our streets today? We’ve had 2 Recent terror attacks, our children splattered against the walls of concerts”, it is said Osborne wrote.

Naming London Mayor Sadiq Khan, he added: “How you can let this happen, terrorists marching through our capital city, you’re a disgrace.”

Osborne, who also accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of being a “terrorist sympathiser” and criticised outspoken singer Lily Allen, appears to have been angered by the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, jurors heard.

“Where was the public outrage after 1400 of our white British none muslim girls? Where were you in Rotherham Lily allen, Jeremy Corby nowhere to be seen,” he wrote.

“Don’t people get it, this is happening up and down our Green and pleasant land, Ferrel inbred raping muslim men hunting in packs preying on our children, this will be coming to a town hear you soon, it most probably has.”

Mr Rees told the court Osborne had also vowed to write to Prime Minister Theresa May and Parliament while writing the note, which was found to have his fingerprints on it.

“He deliberately drove a heavy Luton box van into a group of Muslims who had gathered in the junction of Seven Sisters Road and Whadcoat Street, in the Finsbury Park area of London,” said the prosecutor.

“The prosecution say that the note and the comments he made after his detention establish that this act of extreme violence was, indeed, an act of terrorism, designed to influence government and intimidate that Muslim community.”

Mr Rees said evidence shows Osborne “was trying to kill as many of the group as possible.”

“The only reason he targeted this group is that it was plain to him from the way they looked, and the surrounding circumstances, that most or all of them were Muslims.

“He had hired the van in Wales and driven the van from Cardiff to London the previous day looking for such a target.

“To seek to kill someone merely because of their religion is a terrible thing. And what makes this act particularly horrific is that the group he drove into had gathered in the street in order to help Makram Ali, the deceased, who had collapsed as he walked along Seven Sisters Road a couple of minutes before the defendant carried out his attack.”

The court heard Osborne was detained at the scene of the alleged attack, and was heard to say: “At least I had a proper go.”

Osborne, from Cardiff, denies murder and attempted murder.

The trial continues.