A man attempted to run over a Muslim woman and a 12-year-old schoolgirl as revenge for the London 7/7 bombings and the Parsons Green Tube station attack, a court heard.
Paul Moore is alleged to have attempted to kill Zaynab Hussein with his Volkswagen Up vehicle on September 20 last year. The court heard he admits he was the driver.
The jury were told how Ms Hussein was struck once and subsequently driven over again moments later as the defendant allegedly laughed.
Moore, 21, is then alleged to have tried to cause the 12-year-old serious harm by driving the same vehicle at her moments later.
A jury of seven men and five women at Nottingham Crown Court were told Moore allegedly tried to kill Ms Hussein in Acer Close in Leicester just after 8am “purely because of the colour of her skin” and her “perceived Islamic faith”.
Opening the case against Moore on Tuesday, prosecutor Jonathan Straw said: “(Moore) carefully and deliberately, in an act of calculated evil, aligned his wheels so the front and back wheels were over her (Ms Hussein).
“He did not know her. He tried to kill her purely because of the colour of her skin and because of her perceived Islamic faith as she was wearing a hijab.
“It is no coincidence, we say, that there had been a bomb at Parsons Green Tube station in London, said to have been carried out by sympathisers of Islamic State.”
Mr Straw continued: “She had received severe fractures to her pelvis, her spine, and one of the bones in her leg was broken.
“Having deliberately, we say, tried to kill Zaynab Hussein, the defendant then drove at a second victim – a 12-year-old schoolgirl.
“He did not hit her, he brushed her, but it is only by the grace of God and nothing more that she was saved.”
Mr Straw said Moore intended to offer no defence, adding: “It may well be he has no defence. He admits he was the driver.”
Giving evidence in the witness box, Moore’s half-brother, Lewis Welsh, said the 21-year-old was very intoxicated at the time of the incident.
Mr Welsh said: “He (Moore) tried to put it down to the London 7/7 bombings. He said he was proud of himself and doing the country a favour.”
He continued to say he did not wish to repeat the language Moore used after the incident as he “did not want to be racist”.
In a recorded interview played to the court, Reece Bishop, a passenger in the car at the time of the alleged attack on Ms Hussein, told police: “He was just driving like a maniac.
“I thought we were going to be dead. He said ‘I feel like running someone over. Anyone’.
“It all happened so fast. He turned the steering wheel and he just hits her out of the blue.”
On the recorded interview with police, Mr Bishop said Moore was laughing as he drove at Ms Hussein.
Moore, of Letchworth Road, Western Park, Leicester, denies attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and dangerous driving.
The trial continues.
