David Amess trial: Judge says murder suspect has no legal defence

Sir David Amess was fatally stabbed during a constituency surgery in October

The judge in the trial of a man accused of murdering the MP Sir David Amess has said the defendant has no legal defence.

Ali Harbi Ali, 26, said in evidence on Thursday that he stabbed Sir David on 15 October 2021 in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, as retribution for airstrikes in Syria.

In a legal direction Mr Justice Sweeney told the jury there was no lawful defence for the killing of Sir David.

Mr Ali denies murder and preparing acts of terrorism.

The jury has retired to consider its verdict.

In his direction to the jury, Mr Justice Sweeney said: "Having considered the defendant's account taken at its highest in his favour, I direct you, as the judge, that the killing was neither in lawful self-defence, nor in lawful defence of another, nor in the lawful prevention of crime.

"Because that is a direction in law, the prosecution are entitled to rely on it and you must follow it in your deliberations. No other defence arises."

In his closing speech to the jury, Tom Little QC, prosecuting, said the evidence against Mr Ali was "utterly overwhelming and compelling".

He told jurors: "I suggest you will never forget the body-worn footage of the defendant still holding the bloody knife he had had for five years for just such an attack in that church on Sir David Amess."

During evidence on Thursday Ali Harbi Ali told jurors he killed Sir David Amess to prevent Muslims being harmed

During his evidence Mr Ali was "smiling, almost enjoying reliving and explaining what he intended to do and what he had done, revelling, you may think, in his terrorist acts", Mr Little said.

He told jurors: "In Ali Harbi Ali's world he has done nothing wrong.

"But you live in the real world, and in the real world you cannot take the law into your hands, hence he has no defence to the charge of murder."

Defence barrister Tracy Ayling QC told the jury that the defendant's case was that he acted to "save lives" in Syria.

"His purpose was, as he puts it now, to save lives at the expense of Sir David's but also his own," she said.