London attack: the premeditation of the action indictment

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Judge Renee Pomerance listens to prosecutor Sarah Shaikh during the trial of Nathaniel Veltman in Windsor.

• Katherine Brulotte (View profile)Katherine Brulotte

The Crown suggested to jurors in Nathaniel Veltman's trial on Wednesday that he had been planning an attack against Muslims for months, that he chose to take action and that he was proud of his actions afterwards.

Warning : The events described in this text may be upsetting.

The Crown prosecutor made dozens of suggestions that the accused refuted as his cross-examination continues in Windsor.

Nathaniel Veltman testified for a fourth day in his trial for the premeditated terrorist murders of four members of a Muslim family in London in 2021.

Maître Jennifer Moser argued, among other things, in her cross-examination, that the accused had been in planning mode for months with the intention of killing Muslim people.

You had a firm plan to go out and kill Muslims, she told the jurors, which the accused denied.

Images of Nathaniel Veltman's initial interrogation were released by the prosecution.

The lawyer first pointed out that the accused purchased his black van a few weeks before the events of which he is accused, for an amount of $36,000, an enormous sum, the accused admitted, considering his salary of approximately $3,000 per month. He called the acquisition his biggest purchase.

The Crown argued that he got into this debt because he had no intention of repaying the loan, already knowing that he would use the van to commit a crime. : You knew you were going to use the van to carry out this attack, she said, and you were prepared to pay any price for it, an assertion which the accused also objected to.

The lawyer also stressed to the jurors that the accused had placed a copy of his manifesto on a USB key in the hours before the attack so that the police could easily find it.

Then, describing the moments following the arrest of the accused, Mr. Moser affirmed that the smile and the attitude of the accused as described by the police officers who carried out the arrest were a demonstration of his pride , stressing that he asked the taxi driver who contacted the police at his request to film the scene so that it could be shared with the rest of the world.

In the audience at the Windsor court, members of the Muslim community who regularly attend the trial were visibly upset by the testimony.

When the prosecutor discussed the moments immediately preceding the collision, she asserted that not only the clothing worn by two of the victims but also the color of their skin influenced the accused's choice to take them as target.

Cries then resonated in the audience and some observers tried to comfort themselves with hugs.

This upheaval seemed amplified by the prosecutor's suggestion that, far from hesitating in the moments leading up to the collision, the accused instead turned the wheel to ensure that he hit all the victims.

Questioned about the reasons that led the accused to answer Detective Micah Bourdeau's questions in the hours following his arrest, the accused stated that x27;he had sought, in a state of panic, to morally justify his action.

The Crown instead argued, before the jurors, that Nathaniel Veltman seemed calm and that he wanted to make his vision of the world known to the police officer.

< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hNZoeU">The prosecutor again showed the jurors a portion of the accused's interrogation during which he sat with his hands crossed behind his head, visibly relaxed.

Nathaniel Veltman answered questions from Detective Micah Bourdeau at London police headquarters in the hours following his arrest on June 6 June 2021.

The accused claimed that it is more of a bad habit when he is nervous.

• Katherine Brulotte (View profile)Katherine BrulotteFollow