'Angel of Woolwich' says confronting Lee Rigby's killers ruined her life
Ingrid Loyau-Kennett says she suffers from such severe PTSD she can no longer get out of bed
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The woman who confronted Lee Rigby’s killers has said her life has been “ruined” and she wishes she had never intervened.
Ingrid Loyau-Kennett won several bravery awards for confronting Michael Abebolajo and Michael Adebowale moments after they killed Fusilier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks in south London.
However, three years after the incident, Ms Loyau-Kennett says she now suffers from such severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) she struggles to get out of bed and can no longer work.
“I used to be a very active person," she told the Sun. “I was a scout leader, bell ringer, sing in a choir and go tapdancing. I was a very active person. Every day I had an activity.
“Now it’s the complete emptiness around me. I can’t stop sleeping, I just don’t wake up.
The former teacher and translator said at the time she saw three cars drive away and thought they were "cowards".
“But maybe next time I would take the cowards way out”.
Ms Loyau-Kennett was travelling past the scene on the No. 53 bus when she spotted Fusilier Rigby’s body on the ground.
She rushed off the bus to check the 25-year-old's pulse without realising his killers were next to him.
The mother-of-two said she was scared they would kill others before the armed police so decided to keep them talking.
Abebolajo and Adebowale were both later handed life sentences - Abebolajo received a whole life tariff and Abebowale will have to serve at least 45 years before he is released.
But Ms Loyau-Kennett disagrees with the harsh sentence awarded to Abebowale as he was clearly “mentally ill” and “did absolutely nothing” during the attack.
She said: “Since when should a mentally ill man be condemned for 47 years? I was so shocked.
“He did absolutely nothing. He was petrified. He was following the other guy around like a dog.
“He repeated the words of a killer. He repeated like a parrot and he got 47 years."
At the time, David Cameron praised the bravery of Ms Loyau-Kennet. He said: "Confronting extremism is a job for us all. And the fact that our communities will unite in doing this was vividly demonstrated by the brave Cub pack leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, who confronted one of the attackers on the streets of Woolwich.
"When told by the attacker he wanted to start a war in London she replied: 'You're going to lose, it is only you versus many'.
"She spoke for us all."