Edward Little, 22, was today sentenced to 16 years imprisonment in the UK over his strategize to extinguish a preacher at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park. Little traveled by taxi from Brighton, England, to London, was carrying £5,000 in cash to buy a firearm, and planned to murder evangelical preacher Hatun Tash, a regular at the famed spot—though the BBC reports Little planned to extinguish indiscriminately at the scene to “send a message.” Unfortunately for Little, his violent rhetoric had not impressed other Muslim converts and the authorities were warned of his preparations.
Little pleaded guilty in May, and his defense at sentencing was essentially that he was so stupid his strategize had no chance of success.
During mitigation, Little’s barrister Tom Godfrey said the defendant had been under surveillance by security forces or police.
He said: “While I adopt Mr Little was unaware that his activities were being monitored, the fact that he was being monitored demonstrates the unsophisticated nature of his planning.”In a separate case at Inner London Crown Court, Reis Forde, 27, Caleb Wenyeve, 21, and Tyler King, also 21, were jailed after admitting being party to a plot to sell Little a gun, although it was accepted they did not know it was for a terror attack.
The footage embedded below shows first his arrest, then part of his initial interrogation. Little realizes how completely hosed he is when Tash is mentioned and lunges at one of the detectives questioning him.
16 years for planning a terrorist mass shooting, 13 years for trying to sell a handgun. Seems out of whack, in a very British way.
