Sir David Amess MP murder trial hears accused targeted Michael Gove

An “Islamist terrorist” accused of murdering Sir David Amess MP carried out reconnaissance on other potential targets including cabinet minister Michael Gove, his trial heard.

Sir David, MP for Southend West, was stabbed during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 October.

Ali Harbi Ali stabbed Sir David repeatedly in an “assassination for terrorist purposes”, the jury heard.

The 26-year-old from London denies murder and preparing acts of terrorism.

Opening the trial at the Old Bailey in London, prosecutor Tom Little QC described the defendant as a “radicalised Islamist terrorist” and called it a “murder carried out because of a warped and twisted and violent ideology”.

“This was nothing less than an assassination for terrorist purposes,” he said.

“It is a crime to which, we say, he has no defence.”

Moments before the stabbing the defendant’s phone made a sound and he said “sorry” before repeatedly stabbing the MP, the prosecution said.

A post-mortem examination showed Sir David suffered 21 stab wounds to his face, arms, legs and torso, as well as injuries to both hands that were consistent with defending himself.

The court heard Mr Ali had requested an appointment with Sir David under the pretence he was moving to the area and he provided a postcode to verify this.

Mr Little told jurors that Mr Ali appeared “relaxed and chatty” as he walked over to Sir David just before he “brutally” stabbed him in a “vicious and frenzied attack” shortly after midday on 15 October.

Two people arriving for the next appointment heard cries for help from the MP’s aides while Mr Ali continued to wave a bloody knife shouting “I killed him, I killed him”, the court was told.

Mr Little said the defendant then shouted to those in the church: “I want him dead. I want every Parliament Minister [sic] who signed up for the bombing of Syria who agreed to the Iraqi war to die.”

Ali Harbi Ali sat impassively in the dock of Court Two at the Old Bailey as the jury heard how he had given a clear account at the scene of the attack, why he had allegedly done it and how he would then wait for armed police to arrive and shoot him dead.

But this wasn’t central London, but quiet suburban Leigh-on-Sea.

So instead, the first responders were two local officers – PCs Scott James and Ryan Curtis – and the jury watched transfixed by the body-worn video of what happened next.

Witnesses warned the officers they would be attacked if they entered. But with a Taser team still minutes away and firearms even further behind, PCs James and Curtis decide to risk their own lives in the hope of saving Sir David’s.

Carrying just their batons and incapacitating spray, they enter the church, see the assailant – and then scream at him, with some choice expletives, to drop the knife.

The attacker suddenly does so and a split second later he is rushed to the ground and pinned down, cuffed and his rights are read.

There was nothing the officers could do to save Sir David.

The defendant was then heard on the phone saying: “I’ve done it because of Syria. I’ve done it because of the innocent people. I’ve done it because of the bombing. He deserved to die.”

During a confrontation he refused to drop his knife and said he wanted to be shot and “I want to die; I want to be a hero”.

Mr Little said that around the time of the attack, the defendant sent a long message to friends and family with a video relating to Raqqa in Syria.

Instead of firearms officers Mr Ali was initially confronted by two plain clothes Essex Police officers, the court heard.

Mr Little said the pair “bravely decided” to enter the building armed only with a baton and incapacitant spray.

He added: “The defendant hoped that he would be shot, killed, a martyr for the terrorist cause.

“However, this was not outside the Houses of Parliament, central London, but Leigh-on-Sea and the first police attenders were not firearms officers but PC Scott James and PC Ryan Curtis.”

In his police interview Mr Ali allegedly told officers how he remembered stabbing Sir David “a few times in the places where I stabbed him” adding: “You don’t send off a bunch of messages saying that you’re committing a terror attack if you don’t actually commit a terrorist attack.”

Sir David, first elected as a Conservative MP in Basildon in Essex in 1983, was pronounced dead at the scene, where Mr Ali was arrested by police.

Mr Little said: “This is a case involving a cold and calculated murder, a murder carried out in a place of worship.

“It was a murder carried out by that young man [Mr Ali] who for many years had been planning just such an attack and who was, and is, a committed, fanatical, radicalised Islamist terrorist.”

Mr Little said the attack was “no spur-of-the-moment decision”, and said Mr Ali bought the knife used to attack Sir David five years earlier.

He said: “He had for a number of years been determined to carry out an act of domestic terrorism.”

Mr Little said the defendant had researched a list of “523 MPs who carried out a vote to carry out airstrikes in Syria”, using the website theyworkforus.com.

He carried out reconnaissance trips including six different visits to Michael Gove’s address in west London in 2021.

Evidence recovered from his phone suggested he had been on the road where the secretary of state for communities and levelling up lived, the prosecution said.

A note entitled “plans” from 2019, examined possible ways to attack Mr Gove including bumping into him while the MP for Surrey Heath was out jogging.

Data from the defendant’s mobile phone also placed him in the proximity of the Houses of Parliament seven times between July and September 2021, the court was told.

Mr Little told the jury: “Being blunt about it, he’s not a tourist… looking at Big Ben and taking some photographs.

“This is terrorist planning.”

Trips to a constituency surgery of the Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green in London, Mike Freer, had also been carried out by Mr Ali a month before Sir David was stabbed, the court heard.

Mr Ali had also researched Justice Secretary Dominic Raab and Labour leader Keir Starmer QC in September 2021, said Mr Little.

The jury heard he then researched Southend-on-Sea and Sir David Amess in September before looking for train companies for a journey from Barking to Leigh-on-Sea on 14 October, the day before Sir David was stabbed.

The preparing acts of terrorism charge relates to activity alleged to have been carried out between 1 May 2019 and 28 September 2021.

Mr Ali, of Kentish Town, north London, appeared in the dock wearing a black robe and black-rimmed glasses.

The jury were told by the prosecution that Mr Ali’s mental health did not form any part of his defence.

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.