In his own words: Convicted Londoner offers ‘regret’ for killing four people, injuring young boy

The sentencing hearing for Nathaniel Veltman, 23, concluded Tuesday with his statement to the court.

He was convicted in November 2023 by a Windsor, Ont. jury of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

On June 6, 2021, four members of the Afzaal family, grandmother Talat, her son Salman, his wife Madiha and their daughter Yumnah were killed while walking down the street in London, Ont. Their nine-year-old son was seriously injured but survived.

Here is what Veltman said:

“I would like to take this opportunity to express my regret for the loss of the Afzaal [family]. While I do maintain what I said at testimony at trial, I understand and accept that it was a direct result of my actions on June 6, 2021 that caused a loss of four innocent lives and a young boy to be left on his own. But I don’t pretend to grasp how much harm that I caused him, the boy.

Over the course of days, months and years following June 6, I’ve seen and grasped, I’ve not fully grasped I’ve seen the extent of pain and suffering that my actions did cause. This was most evident earlier this month during the victim impact statements.

I’m sorry for this pain and suffering that I caused. I cannot turn back time. I did learn a lot about myself during the process, including the mental health disorders [that] have played a role in the tragic incident. It has helped me to understand why [I] thought and behave the way that I did. And I plan to take every opportunity available to me to better myself, and take full advantage of the programming and opportunities to better myself as well.

Thank you.”

There was little reaction by the family members and friends in the courtroom gallery, but family members did provide a statement of their own to the media outside afterwards.

Ali and Hina Islam, Madiha’s aunt and uncle, provided a statement of their own after Veltman’s.

“It would be a failure to believe this is an apology – this is one more strategy in a series of ploys that has not stopped for two and a half years. It comes from a convicted killer who has had ample opportunity to confess. If he was truly sorry, we would never have been here for needless trial – video evidence of the attack, video confession in jail, a written manifesto, and a chart of pedestrian fatality and driving speeds on this coffee table. This was an unnecessary revictimization of our family.

This is not an apology. These are strategic words coming from a killer after being convicted. He could have chosen anytime to apologize, but to do just before sentencing so it can be entered into the record as an ‘apology’ is a checkbox that is being ticked for the parole board. This is not an apology, this is strategy.

An apology would be confessing to the terrorism charge – not fighting it. Everyone knows what he did. He used violence and killed three generations, including a child, to intimidate an entire segment of the Canadian population. The concealment of this obvious intent for the last two and a half years reveals his corrupt ideology, as much as he tries to veil it behind a hollow apology.”

Veltman will be sentenced on Feb. 22.

The judge will rule at that time if his actions were terrorism and she will decide on what the sentence should be for the conviction on attempted murder.

Regardless, Veltman will be going to prison for life and he cannot apply for parole until 2046.