IN the eight months it has taken to bring Ensar Gol to justice, his interactions with the legal system have revealed a defiant character.

At his plea hearing in March the Turkish national wore a scarf over his mouth and, as his barrister Richard Benson put it, “refused to recognise the jurisdiction of the court”.

The 22-year-old, who on Facebook described England as “a damned hell”, had pleas of not guilty entered on his behalf.

At this stage Gol was also refusing to cooperate with his legal team who therefore could not set out the grounds of his defence.

In the background was the issue of Gol’s mental health as a scheduled April 18 trial date came and went.

After numerous psychiatric reports, the defendant was declared fit to stand trial.

Following yesterday’s verdicts, prosecutor Dafydd Enoch said: “There is no basis for any mental health defence in this case.”

Claiming to be a religious man, yet choosing not to swear his oath on a holy book, Gol was animated and loud in the witness box throughout his trial.

Smiling as the verdicts were read out, he finished his time in court as it had begun back in September when he grinned to photographers outside Oxford Magistrates’ Court.