An Islamic extremist who was previously jailed for gloating about the horrific murder of soldier Lee Rigby has been put back behind bars.
Royal Barnes, 34, was sent to prison in 2014 after he was filmed by his wife, Rebekah Dawson, laughing hysterically as he drove past the scene of Mr Rigby’s murder in Woolwich, east London.
The soldier, just 25 at the time, was killed by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in a brutal attack using knives and a cleaver.
Barnes, a friend of Adebowale and part of the ‘Muslim Patrole’ group who toured east London promoting fundamentalist behaviour, was previously recalled to prison in 2019 for breaching terrorist notification requirements.
But just days after his 2023 release, the 34-year-old was spotted by staff at the hostel he was staying in driving a hire BMW.
Later that month, police saw Barnes in the street and attempted to arrest him, but the serial offender fled the scene. During a police chase which followed, Barnes discarded a phone.
When the device was retrieved and examined, officers found he had fraudulently obtained a man’s bank details to order an online takeaway.
The extremist appeared at the Old Bailey today wearing blue jeans, glasses and a grey jumper.
Royal Barnes (pictured) is back in jail after fraudulently using the bank details of another man to order a takeaway
Soldier Lee Rigby (pictured) was killed in Woolwich, east London, in a brutal attack using knives and a cleaver in 2013
Barnes was initially sent to prison in 2014 after he was filmed by his wife laughing hysterically as he drove past the scene of Mr Rigby’s murder
Judge Angela Rafferty, KC, said Barnes had ‘anti-authoritarian views and a lack of respect towards the officers working with you.’
She added his offending was ‘repetitive and persistent’.
Barnes had been fraudulently using the bank details of a man named John Taylor, the court heard, and had too created an email address under that name.
He had also failed to provide police with a change of phone number and the details of the BMW car, in breach of his notification requirements under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008.
Prosecutor Gareth Weetman said: ‘Ten years ago the defendant was convicted of an offence of inciting a Terrorist Act for which he received a 64-month prison sentence and a 15-year notification period.
‘Very soon he was in breach of his notification requirements via a vehicle and received a further three years in prison.
‘Within days of his release, he was seen to be driving a vehicle which hadn’t been notified.
‘When police tried to apprehend him he ran off and tried to discard a mobile phone.
‘When examined, it was apparent he had obtained fraudulently an individual’s banking details and used them to order an online takeaway.’
In 2014, Barnes and his wife had ridiculed memorial flowers left by friends, family and members of the public for Mr Rigby, with Barnes describing the murder as ‘absolutely brilliant’.
Dawson, his partner, also boasted in a text to a friend: ‘Did you watch it? It was really inciting and almost glorifying lol.’
In a video posted to YouTube at the time (pictured), Barnes boasted that the murder of Mr Rigby was ‘absolutely brilliant’
In other videos posted to YouTube in the days after the killing, both Barnes and Dawson asserted that Sharia Law would be implemented in the UK and British women would be forced to wear the hijab.
Just two weeks later, Barnes made a post on Facebook offering his wife’s Vauxhall Astra to anyone who killed a British soldier.
Barnes had previous convictions for theft and receiving stolen goods before he converted to Islam and married Dawson in November 2011.
He was a member of Anjem Choudary’s al-Muhajiroun group by mid-2012 and, in December 2012, was given a suspended sentence for abusive behaviour at an EDL demonstration.
Barnes, who attended rallies with Adebowale and other extremists, was also a member of the ‘Muslim Patrol’, a group which terrorised members of the public in east London who dared to hold hands, drink alcohol or wear short skirts.
The Muslim Patrol videos surfaced in December 2012 and featured Barnes and his fellow vigilantes Jordan Horner, 19, and Ricardo MacFarlane, 36, prowling the streets trying to enforce Sharia Law.
In one incident, Horner and Barnes drove alongside couple Joshua Bilton and Anna Reddiford in Bethnal Green and shouted through a megaphone: ‘Let go of each other’s hands. This is a Muslim area!’
Two weeks later, Horner and MacFarlane attacked a group of men drinking in Shoreditch, shouting: ‘Kill the non-believers.’
Then on 23 January 2013, Barnes and Horner confronted another couple, Clare Coyle and Robert Gray, walking in the street in Stepney.
Barnes accused Miss Coyle of dressing inappropriately in a Muslim area and called her a ‘slag’, telling her she would be punished in ‘hellfire’.
The group shouted: ‘Remove yourselves now! Muslim Patrol! Move away from the mosque. Don’t come back. We don’t respect those who disrespect God.’
Miss Coyle replied: ‘This is Great Britain. I can dress how I wish.’
Another video posted by the Muslim Patrol involved homophobic abuse being directed at a man wearing make-up.
Lee Rigby was engaged to Aimee West at the time of his death, but had his son with his estranged wife Rebecca Rigby (pictured)
On 26 February 2014, Michael Adebolajo (left) and Michael Adebowale (right)were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Mr Rigby
The same month, Dawson looked for a voice-changer on eBay at a time when Barnes took part in a phone-in on the LBC radio station.
Within hours of the murder of Lee Rigby on 22 May 2013, Barnes made a video of himself celebrating the murder and shouting: ‘This is a brilliant day.’
The video begins with jihadi chanting over a montage from the movie War Horse before moving on to the 9/11 attacks and an ITN news report of Michael Adebolajo at the Woolwich murder scene.
Barnes then turns to the camera, backed by the black flag of jihad, and says: ‘Now British soldiers, you have seen what has happened to you. British soldiers, British public: Muslims are killed on a day to day basis in Afghanistan and Iraq by British soldiers every day. British soldiers, they rape and they kill innocent people.
‘Now this is a brilliant day, it is the Muslim fightback and the government will never be safe. Sharia law of Allah is coming.
‘The message to your brilliant soldiers is it is not safe on the streets of London.
‘The message to David Cameron and the tyrants in the Houses of Parliament, is now a British soldier is on Sky News, tomorrow it will be you.
‘Muslims are going to rise up in London and implement the Sharia. You will never ever be safe until you remove the invading forces out of Muslim lands…’
He adds: ‘Whether you like it or not Islam is coming to America, Islam is coming to London, and your mothers and your daughters will wear the hijab.
‘Muslims over here will rise up and implement and kill British soldiers unless you reform your policy and stop oppressing Muslims. The Sharia is going to come to south London.
‘That man [Lee Rigby] is in the grip of hellfire and I am glad he is in hellfire.’
Adebolajo (pictured) was 28 at the time of the attack – where he and his accomplice tried to behead the soldier
Adebolajo (pictured) was branded Britain’s most dangerous prisoner and was banned from attending yoga classes in prison
The video was made at 8.15pm, edited at 11.05pm and then uploaded on to YouTube at 5.08am on the account Musa Real Talks with the title ‘British Soldier beheaded in London The Response Must See!’.
When Dawson sent her friends a link to the video the next morning, one of them objected: ‘What is the purpose of the links you have sent me?’
Muslim Patrol member Jordan Horner also responded at 10am: ‘Tie your camel. The video needs to come off or you are going to get arrested.’
On 23 May, they made a second film of Dawson speaking to the camera in her black full veil and gave it the title: ‘Muslim Women exposes!!! Must See’.
Dawson told the camera: ‘You keep poking at an animal long enough it is going to fight back and bite you. We are fighting back and Sharia, Islamic law will come in.’
When it was posted, one of her friends warned her they faced arrest and she replied: ‘Did you watch it? It was really inciting and almost glorifying lol’
Both videos were removed from YouTube within a matter of days.
A week later, Dawson filmed Barnes on her mobile phone while he drove past the scene of the murder and the dozens of bouquets of flowers left by the public.
He laughed hysterically and said: ‘This is where a British soldier died. This is what happens when the foreign policy is to attack Muslims’.
Barnes added: ‘Now they have turned it into some kind of shrine, I don’t know what’s wrong with people. Obviously the death of Lee Rigby is something to be ridiculed at. This is absolutely brilliant.’
He also laughed and said: ‘He got chopped up in Woolwich’.
Barnes and Dawson were also involved in harassing a caretaker they claimed had let indecently-dressed tourists into Finsbury Park Mosque.
Jack Rigby (pictured) was just two years old at the time of Lee Rigby’s death (pictured) – a decade later he has raised £50,000 to support charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers
On 10 June 2013, Barnes attacked Daudi Yusuf after he let two female Portuguese tourists view the interior without head coverings.
Two weeks later, after Mr Yusuf went to police to report the assault, Dawson threatened him and branded him a liar, for which she was jailed for one year and eight months.
Jacob Bindman defending said Barnes should be allowed his freedom because of the amount of time he has spent in custody after his offence, along with his mental health issues and traumatic childhood.
He said: ‘He has been in custody since the offences took place, for over a year and a half. Over that time, his behaviour in prison has been markedly improved.
‘He has now served more time in custody for breaches than he did for his originally indexed offence.
‘Notwithstanding the importance of compliance with the notification issue, breaches are not there to punish for the original offending. It is important because it allows police to monitor terrorist offenders.
‘The evidence before the court is, there are no concerns at present. This isn’t a case where there’s ongoing extremist activity.
‘He continues to engage with the Desistance and Disengagement Programme. He is under no obligation to do so, but he has continued all the same.
‘While he has not moved away from offending, he has moved away from his original offending.
Speaking of his client’s psychological assessment, Mr Bindman said: ‘He has a very unusual psychological makeup and he had very traumatic early life experiences. through his time in care. There is no record of his having dealt with this before.
‘He has very complex psychological features. His traumatic life experiences have manifested themselves in violent grandiosity and utter disregard for the notification regime.
‘It isn’t as straightforward as him saying “I don’t want to comply with this and I am not going to comply”‘.
He went on to say that Barnes has a ‘nonverbal learning disability and Borderline Personality Disorder’ and that he ‘needs support’.
He said: ‘It’s important to recognise, fundamental to recognise, that there is a way forward for Mr Barnes.
‘Locking him up in this continued cycle of imprisonment has no benefit to the public.
‘He wants to make a change. I ask the court to impose a sentence that does not make that possibility entirely futile.’
Mr Bindman added: ‘Mr Barnes has been fasting and he was so anxious last night he was unable to sleep.’
Barnes was sentenced to four and a half years for the two counts of failure to comply, to run consecutive to a 12-month sentence for the fraud charge.
