New York truck attacker gets 10 life sentences plus 260 years

An Islamic State supporter behind the deadliest terror attack in New York since 9/11 has been told he will die in prison serving multiple life sentences.

Sayfullo Saipov killed eight when he drove a truck into pedestrians and cyclists on a Manhattan street in 2017.

He was given 10 life sentences, eight of which are consecutive, plus 260 years, and he will never be released.

When he was sentenced, he was told that he had “destroyed so many lives”, but he showed no remorse during the trial.

Saipov was confronted by the families of the victims and survivors in court, with the judge noting his “purely unrepentant nature” during Wednesday’s sentencing.

The Uzbekistan citizen, now 35, used a rented truck to attack random bicyclists and pedestrians on the West Side of midtown Manhattan on Halloween night in 2017.

He shouted “God is great” in Arabic and was shot by police as he was getting out of the vehicle. He hoped the atrocity would allow him to become a member of the group, he told himself in a previous hearing.

He is expected to remain in Colorado’s high-security “supermax” prison, where inmates spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells.

Monica Missio, the mother of victim Nicholas Cleves, said in the courtroom: “It disgusts me that he wakes up every day while my son doesn’t.”

“Their barbarity and cruelty fills me with rage,” he said.

Rachel Pharn, who survived the attack, said she could forgive Saipov for the impact on her, but not for the suffering he had caused others who had come to hear the sentence.

She added: “When I look around the room, when I think of all the pain you caused, I can’t forgive that. That’s between you, them and Allah.”

Five of the dead were Argentine tourists and a 31-year-old Belgian woman who was visiting the city also died.

Two Americans, a 32-year-old financial worker and a 23-year-old software engineer, were killed, while 12 others were injured.

US District Judge Vernon Broderick said Saipov’s crimes were notable “both in terms of the impact he had on the victims and the unrepentant nature of the defendant.”

Addressing the court before sentencing, Saipov appeared to repeat his praise for the terror group and suggested he was not moved by the testimony he had heard.

He was spared the death penalty when a jury failed to unanimously agree to impose it at a hearing last week.