Lee Rigby's Killers Could Die Behind Bars

By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent

The men who murdered soldier Lee Rigby will learn later if they are to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey at 2pm for the gruesome killing outside Woolwich barracks in south east London.

In May last year the pair ran the fusilier down in a car, leapt out and then began a sustained and frenzied attack on the motionless body of the solider.

During the trial the jury was told "Michael Adebolajo made a serious and almost successful attempt to decapitate him".

Adebolajo argued in court he was a "soldier of Allah" acting as part of a wider conflict between the west and the Islamic world.

Growing up in and around London, Adebolajo and Adebowale had both been involved in gang crime, drugs and then, at different times, converted to Islam.

Adebolajo travelled to Kenya in 2010 hoping to get to Somalia but was detained by the authorities and deported back to Britain.

Authorities are looking to see if the murder could have been prevented

He was being tracked by the UK security services and had resisted efforts to try to persuade him to work with intelligence agents.

The jury at the murder trial were unanimous in their guilty verdicts over the murder but cleared Adebolajo and Adebowale of attempting to murder a police officer in the aftermath of the attack.

Dramatic footage was played in court showing how Adebolajo sprinted at armed officers with a knife held aloft - with such an immediate threat an officer opened fire from the backseat and Adebolajo fell just yards from the police team.

The trial ended on December 19 but sentencing was delayed until a ruling at the Court of Appeal over the validity of whole life tariffs where prisoners expect to die in prison.

Last week a ruling backed the legality of the whole life tariff and it is understood to be one of the options open to the judge when he passes sentence on Adebolajo and Adebowale this afternoon. 

An Intelligence and Security Committee in Westminster is also examining whether any opportunities to prevent the murder were missed by the authorities.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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