A terror suspect laughingly compared himself to a Little Britain character after stabbing to death Sir David Amess and telling police “I killed an MP – I done it”, the Old Bailey has heard.
Ali Harbi Ali, 26, is accused of murdering the veteran MP for Southend West by stabbing him more than 20 times during a constituency surgery at a church in Leigh-on-Sea.
In video evidence of police questioning Ali in the aftermath of the attack, he confirmed it was a “terror attack” and told officers: “I mean, I guess yeah, I killed an MP. I done it, so yeah.”
The following day, Ali, from Kentish Town, was reminded of his response, and laughed as he told police: “Oh God, I sound stupid there. Nah, I just … the way I worded it. It sounds like a Little Britain episode. Um, I just … yeah, it sounded like what a terrorist act is.
“I went into an MP’s surgery and I killed him, so with the idea of vengeance in a way, so I will guess we’ll get into that a little bit later on.”
Ali revealed to police that Sir David – before the stabbing on October 15 last year - had initially thought their meeting was a Labour “sting” or a set-up for a satirical TV programme like Brass Eye.
He told officers he had been “radicalised” by 2014, had carried out surveillance on Michael Gove and fellow MP Mike Freer, and by 2021 he believed he had “run out of excuses” not to carry out an attack.
Describing the attack on Sir David, Ali said: “I felt like one minute I was sat down at the table talking to him and the next he was, sort of, dead.
“But, yeah, it’s probably one of the strangest days… of my life now, y’know?”
He told police Sir David “knew straight away something was up” when he sat down for his meeting, having pretended to be moving to Southend to secure the face-to-face meeting.
Describing the attack itself as “satanical almost”, Ali said: “The finisher was probably on his neck over here – at his jugular because when I pierced it, dark red blood came out.”
He called it “weird”, adding: “There’s no doubt about that but it still doesn’t feel like it. Maybe it’s because I feel justified in what I’ve done.”
Video footage has been played to jurors, showing two unarmed police officers tackling Ali in the aisle of the church, while Sir David lay fatally injured in the vestry office.
Asked about his submission to the officers, Ali said: “The only reason I dropped the knife in front of the police officer was ‘cos my sister was on the phone crying her eyes out. It was an intense situation.”
He told police the stabbing was driven by the bombing of Syria, which was backed by a majority of British MPs, and he talked in the interview of visiting Mr Freer’s Finchley office and having pictures of Mr Gove home on his phone.
“The reason why I started going to Parliament in the end was because he (Mr Gove) broke up with his wife so (the) house got sold, he found a new place, and that felt like the closing of a door”, he said.
Ali denies plotting acts of terror for two years before stabbing Sir David and a charge of murder.
The trial continues.
