Life After the Woolwich Attack

Last week, Adebolajo and Adebowale, were both sentenced to life imprisonment, nine months after their brutal attack on Drummer Lee Rigby on a South London street.

The pair were sentenced in their absence after brawling with security guards during Mr Justice Sweeny's opening sentencing remarks. This brings around a legal resolution wanted by all. But how can the family move on after losing a loved one in such a tragic and public way?

Lee Rigby's funeral

Most of us would have seen the upsetting images taken on Artillery Place, Woolwich, in the immediate aftermath of the attack. We were horrified at the sight of an unshaken man calmly addressing a camera phone, while brandishing a blood-soaked cleaver. He stood in front of a man, who laid in the road in a puddle of blood.

"People wearing coats makes it look cold"

On a May morning I was walking to the train station, girlfriend in hand, and it was a cold, windy day. Remember it was over 20 degrees a few weeks ago? Well, this was the following week when our thermometer was hitting an impressive 8 degrees in London. There was a bitter wind, and I had salvaged my thick shirts from the other end of the wardrobe; it was that cold. I ventured outside on a daring mission to hand my University coursework in. Living just yards away from the Thames means that our little area of Woolwich gets hit by even stronger, unprovoked winds. And in the bitter wind, I at one point even had to do the zip up on my coat; not an easy task in the wind.

In our walk to the train station, we walked towards two female teenagers; the sort that often get branded as 'yobs' and 'chavs' in the media. They were quietly gossiping amongst themselves. I had stopped to do my coat up in view of the pair, with my bag banging against my leg. We continued on, and just as we began to pass them, one of the two women erupted, and with added profanities, stated that:

"People wearing coats makes it looked cold!"

Like British people do, me and the other half carried on walking past, quietly bemused. Her sentence then began to properly sink in. "People wearing coats makes it look cold". That is what she said. I looked back. I looked forward. Again I turn backwards. SHE was wearing a thick coat with fur bursting out of it. And Ugg boots. She looked like a bear who had stumbled  onto a make-up counter in a department store. I was wearing a thin blue coat and Converses. I was dressed correctly for the weather, whereas she was dressed for freezing temperatures, and SHE has the cheek to moan about me wearing a coat.

The Woolwich Murder

I was in Woolwich on that day. 22 May 2013. I live there. Fortunately, I was safely in our flat at 2:20pm. I was oblivious anything had happened. Then, helicopters kept circling around and around, and the sounds of distant sirens could be heard. However, after nearly a year of living there, I've become immune to that. Then I read a strange Tweet that stated that something had happened in Woolwich. No more than that. I went to Google. Two men had been shot after brandishing swords, barely a ten minutes walk away.

Telling it from my point of view is not interesting in the slightest. However, I haven't stopped thinking about it. Especially since I found out, many hours later, that it was being classified as an act of terrorism, and that they had beheaded a serving soilder. Those pictures on the television that evening will forever be imprinted in my brain. There has been much discussion as to whether that picture of Michael Adebolajo, the man with bloodied hands holding the meat cleaver, speaking to the camera, should have ever been used. They were distressing for me, let alone a young child walking past a newsagents on the way to school the next morning.