The mother of one of the men
suspected of butchering a British solider on a London street desperately
battled to turn him against extremism after becoming concerned by his
behaviour, it has been claimed.
Friends
say Juliet Obasuyi was worried Michael Adebowale was turning against the family and wanted him to
have 'spiritual guidance' before he radicalised himself.
The 43-year-old was often left in tears after speaking to her son and would approach neighbours and friends for help.
Worried: Juliet Obasuyi, the mother of one of
the men suspected of butchering a British solider on a south London
street, desperately attempted to turn him against extremism
Troubled: The mother of Michael Adebowale, 22,
desperately attempted to turn him against extremism. He is pictured with
a knife in his hand at the scene where Lee Rigby was stabbed to death
One of her neighbours said Mrs Obasuyi went to him about nine months ago after her son dropped out of university.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Mrs
Obasuyi told her 62-year-old security officer neighbour that her son
was not listening anymore.
'His
older sister is a good Christian with a degree but Michael is rebelling
as he has no father figure, dropping out of university and handing out
leaflets in Woolwich town centre.
Career: Drummer Rigby, 25, known as 'Riggers', was known as a brave soldier
'He
is from a strong Christian family but he is turning to Islam and
turning against the family. He needs spiritual guidance before he
radicalises himself.”
Another friend of Mrs Obasuyi, Steve Adebiyi, told the newspaper that Adebowale was giving his mother problems.
'They brainwashed him,' he said.
Problems: It has been claimed that Adebowale
became radicalised after trying to escape gangland 'trouble'. This
picture shows Macey House, in Greenwich, south east London where
Adebowale is registered as a voter
Weapon: This battered car was used to crush
Drummer Lee Rigby against a sign The streak of blood in front shows how
his body was dragged into the street
Rant: A man identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28,
brandishes a meat cleaver with bloodied hands near the scene of the
killing. It was claimed last night that MI5 offered Adebolajo a job six
months ago
Meanwhile, the father of
murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor said tonight that he had acted as a
mentor to Adebowale, who was known to his friends as Toby.
Asked about Wednesday's events, Richard Taylor told ITV News: 'I was terribly shocked at what I saw that day.
'It's a different Toby or Michael that I was seeing that day. I don't believe it was anything Islamic.'
Mr
Taylor, whose son was just ten when he was killed in the capital in
2000, said he had tried to help Adebowale after he was bullied at school
and then became involved in drugs and gangs.
But he said that when he spoke to Adebowale two months ago, he told him that he had changed his ways as he had become a Muslim.
He
went on: 'Having seen how my own son was stabbed to death, made me feel
that... whatever happens, they will still be alive, they will still be
on the street or maybe they will take them away from the public or
change their faces. They don't deserve to live.'
Mr
Taylor said he had also known Adebowale's mother, who he said was a
probation officer, while he said his father was a representative in the
Nigerian High Commission.
He has been arrested by police
officers along with Michael Adebolajo after Drummer Lee Rigby was
brutally killed in Woolwich on Wednesday.
It was also claimed yesterday that Michael Adebowale became radicalised after trying to escape gangland ‘trouble’.
London-born
Adebowale was told to ‘disappear’ after he was caught up with a local
gang known as the Woolwich Boys, and underwent a dramatic change of
personality.
Once a
fun-loving schoolboy who was described as ‘always smiling’ and chatted
to neighbours about Jamie Oliver recipes, he began dressing in
traditional Islamic dress and preaching a radical message of hate.
Adebowale gave up alcohol and began distributing radical leaflets near his mother’s home in Greenwich, south-east London.
Neighbours
said his Nigerian-born mother, Juliet Obasuyi, was a probation officer
and a ‘hard-working’ Christian woman who raised Adebowale alone after
separating from his father.
Police raided her flat and a property linked to Adebowale’s father, Adeniyi Adebowale, in Holloway, North London.
Plain-clothes officers were seen carrying six plastic bags full of video cassettes and audio tapes from the Holloway flat.
The
videos appeared to be labelled as football matches but one line of
inquiry for police is likely to be whether Adebowale was interested in
the type of jihadi videos watched by the July 2005 London bombers.
The
four bombers were linked to an extreme bookshop in Leeds which
distributed videos of terrorist acts, exhorting followers to emulate
them.
Michael Oluwatobi
Adebowale was born to Nigerian parents in Denmark Hill, South London,
in May 1991. His father was then a student at Rutherford College in
Canterbury, Kent, and the couple were said to have separated soon after
the birth.
Adebowale
attended Kidbrooke School in Greenwich, where former pupils said he was
known as Toby or Tobi, an abbreviation of his second name Oluwatobi.
Adebowale
was said to have converted to Islam at 19, while studying at Greenwich
University, where he met the other Woolwich suspect, Michael Adebolajo.
Family
friend Madeleine Edwards, 49, said Adebowale had been in ‘some serious
gangland trouble’ in 2010 and that his mother had told her he ‘had to
disappear for a while’.
She said Adebowale’s father was a ‘typical African gentleman’ but his mother had struggled to control her wayward son.
Adebowale
was said to have left the Greenwich area for a year and returned about
eight months ago, wearing traditional Islamic garb and a white skull
cap, typically worn by Muslim men who have been on the Hajj pilgrimage
to Mecca.
A neighbour,
who asked not to be named, said: ‘Michael would always say hello and
play with my children, but in the last year he stopped. He would just
ignore us when we saw him at the lift.
‘He used to talk to me very enthusiastically about cooking and his recipes. He loved Jamie Oliver and had his books.
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