Michael Adebolajo told police in an interview played today at his trial that he and his co-accused decided a soldier was "the most fair target because he joins the army with kind of an understanding that your life is at risk."
"We sat in wait and it just so happened that he was the soldier that was spotted first," Adebolajo said in the police interview.
Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are accused of running Fusilier Lee Rigby down with a car before hacking him to death with knives and a meat cleaver near Woolwich Barracks in London on May 22.
"We did not wish to give him much pain," he said. Jurors at the trial also heard how a search of Adebolajo's father's house turned up a cache of extremist literature, including "Extreme Islam" and works by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaida leader who was killed in 2011 in a drone strike in the mountains of Yemen.
Adebolajo, 28, and 22-year-old Adebowale have pleaded not guilty to murder. Defense lawyers are expected to begin their case next week.