Nadine Osman
A 21-year-old man from Leicester, who laughed while ploughing his Volkswagen into a Muslim woman and a 12-year-old girl, has been convicted of attempted murder.
Zaynab Hussein, 47, was left with life-changing injuries in the attack in Leicester on September 20, 2017. The mother-of-nine, who is of Somali descent, remains confined to a bed having spent almost three months in hospital.
Paul Moore was found guilty at Nottingham Crown Court on March 2. Moore was also convicted of the attempted grievous bodily harm of a 12-year-old Somali girl, for trying to drive into her minutes after the first attack.
Moore, who has previous convictions and was on bail for a charge of causing grievous bodily harm when he was arrested for the attack. In the hours leading up to the attack Moore had been drinking heavily with friends.
Hussein was returning home after dropping off her two youngest children at school when she was knocked down. She was thrown by the force of the impact into the wall of a house in the Beaumont Leys area of Leicester.
In two witness statements provided from her hospital bed, she said she could feel blood on her forehead and had lost sensation in her limbs, believing them to be broken.
She tried to reach her mobile phone to call family and was crying for help. Two drivers stopped to ask if she needed help but then drove on.
Hussein was left with a fractured pelvis, spine and multiple other injuries including severe breaks to her limbs.
Two young men who had been in the car told police that Moore, who is unemployed, had told them he wanted to run someone over. After he first hit Hussein, sending her flying, the pair jumped out of the still-moving car.
Moore performed a U-turn to return to the scene. He drove past Hussein and seeing her on the ground, he turned the car around, mounted the pavement and drove over her with all four wheels.
He then drove off again and spotted a 12-year-old Somali girl, identified by him as a Muslim because of her headscarf, walking to school with her cousin. Moore drove at her, apparently mounting the pavement again, but this time he clipped her side, sending her bag flying. The girl was unharmed but shaken.
Moore had told his half-brother he was “proud of himself”, and he was “doing the country a favour” after the attacks.
Hussein remains in pain and is still receiving medical treatment for her injuries – including more surgery.
In a statement released after the verdict was announced, the victim’s husband Barre Dualesaid Moore had launched an attack on Britain.
He said: “Paul Moore said he attacked for Britain and that he was proud of it. He was actually attacking Britain, he was attacking a British woman, a British wife, a productive British worker and charity volunteer. He wasn’t attacking terrorists, he was joining their ranks by doing what they do and attacking an innocent woman. I hope that he thinks long and hard about his actions and is able to understand the error of his ways.”
He added: “Our family has been heartbroken by the attack, whatever sentence Paul Moore receives will be less than the life sentence that my wife will have to live with.”
Azhar Qayum of Muslim Engagement and Development , a campaign organisation, said women were particularly vulnerable to attacks, alongside elderly men, because they tended to be more visible.
“What’s happened to Mrs Hussen is very serious – but it is not an isolated case, there has been a long line of very serious crimes like this. We have had the Islamophobic murder of Mohammed Saleem in Birmingham, we have the Islamophobic murder of Mushin Ahmed in Rotherham, an 81-year-old grandfather. And we have had the attack last year on worshippers at Finsbury Park. Although this is very serious, this level of seriousness is not isolated,” said Qayum.