Racist who filled Muslims’ shoes with ham as they prayed in a mosque walks free from court

A racist thug who stuffed ham into the shoes of Muslim worshippers at a mosque has escaped a jail term.

Jamie Knowlson, 30, also draped slices of the meat – which Muslims are banned from eating – on railings outside the mosque as his victims prayed inside.

He was then caught on CCTV hurling abuse at worshippers after they confronted him over his sacrilegious act.

Islam teaches its followers to avoid pig meat as it makes them impure and unclean.

Knowlson initially told police the stunt was a drunken joke but later admitted that he was fully aware of the offence his actions would cause.

He pleaded guilty to causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment and could have been jailed for up to two years.

But walked free from Bristol Crown Court with a suspended six-month prison sentence because he had returned to the mosque to apologise for his actions.

Sentencing, Her Honour Judge Carol Hagen said: ‘It is difficult to imagine a more offensive incident.

‘Not only the fixing of meat to railings but aggravated, in my view, that members of the mosque were inside praying at the time.’

The court heard that Knowlson, from Kingswood, Bristol, targeted the Al-Baseera mosque in the St Judes area of the city which is used by more than 2,000 Somali Muslims every week.

He crept to the mosque from nearby Redwood House homeless shelter on January 9 this year – putting ham in footwear and on railings outside the building as worshippers prayed.

CCTV footage showed him returning to the shelter, where he was confronted by the mosque’s caretaker Abdi Djmaa.

As Mr Djmaa returned to the mosque he heard shouts of ‘the next visit will be harder’, ‘bad meat’ and ‘girls’ coming from the direction of the building

David Hunter, prosecuting at Bristol Crown Court, said it had been a premeditated attack specifically targeted at the Muslim community.

The court heard that shamed Knowlson had returned to the mosque to apologise after the hate crime.

Ian Halliday, defending, said: ‘This was a brutal, misconceived, drunken prank.’

He returned to the mosque and offered his apologies in person.

Knowlson sat in tears as he was handed a six-month suspended sentence and 150 hours of unpaid work.

A second man is due to stand trial in connection with the incident later this month.

After sentencing, Mubarak Mohamud, one of the three imams at the Al-Baseera mosque, claimed the inflammatory act had upset the Muslim community.

He said: ‘There wasn’t anger, people were more upset and shocked.

‘We don’t eat pork and we are banned by our faith from eating it, as it makes us impure when we are going to our prayers.

‘We don’t hate the man – we just suppose he doesn’t know us.’

Knowlson refused to comment after leaving court.

Daily Mail

Racist is jailed

Darren Conway.

THE OFFENSIVE actions of a Gainsborough man were blasted by a judge as he was jailed for displaying inflammatory racist posters in the front window of his flat.

Darren J Conway covered the window of his Heaton Street flat with posters, literature and photographs which attacked the Prophet Mohammed and the Muslim religion.

When police searched the 44-year-old’s flat, they also found 16 cannabis plants growing under a heated lens in his bathroom.

He had previously been found guilty of the charges at Magistrates Court, and appeared at Lincoln Crown Court on Tuesday 6th March for sentencing.

Conway, a former BNP member and supporter of the English Defence League, attracted comments from passers-by and workers at nearby businesses with his offensive display.

Mr Lowe, prosecuting, described a number of the 17 posters and other such material displayed that were ‘undoubtedly offensive to members of the Muslim and Islamic faith’.

Among the slogans on show from his ground-floor window were ‘Jihad works both ways’, ‘no surrender’, ‘Muslims are the most hateful of them all’ and a letter confirming that he was a member of the BNP.

A passer-by reported Conway after being disturbed by the pictures of mutilated Muslims with graphic and obscene messages and imagery.

In Conway’s defence, the court heard how he had no history of racism and he was a carer for his ailing, elderly father who had suffered from multiple strokes.

Conway claimed that he put the posters and other literature in his window simply to attract the attention of the letting agent for his flat with whom he was in dispute, claiming that he had been left for months without electricity in three rooms and described the flat as uninhabitable with mould on the walls.

When sentencing Conway, Hon Judge Heath slammed his offensive behaviour.

“You put 17 offensive pieces and posters in the window of your ground-floor flat where they were there for all to see,” he said.

“To describe the material that you put in your window as grossly offensive would be an understatement, to Muslims and right-thinking members of the public.”

Judge Heath continued: “There is no place in a civilised society for conduct of that sort and the only sentence is an immediate custodial one.”

Conway was sentenced to three months for the production of cannabis and 12 month religiously aggravated harassment.

Dinnington Today

Middlesbrough railway station race abuse group to pay £6k

SIX men with links to a controversial right-wing pressure group have been ordered to pay almost £6,000 for chanting a sickening torrent of religious abuse

EDL members outside Teesside Magistrates Court

The men, who are associated with the English Defence League (EDL), were sentenced at Teesside Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

They were found guilty in August of shouting a highly inflammatory religious chant at Middlesbrough railway station.

Supporters of the men, some wearing EDL sweatshirts and carrying flags, gathered outside the court building yesterday as magistrates only allowed five people in the public gallery.

There was also a strong police presence both in and outside the court, along with mounted officers in Centre Square.

As reported, the group members – who all said they were associated to the EDL in some way – were convicted of religiously aggravated harassment and using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment alarm or distress, after a two-day trial.

The incident happened at about 7.30pm on Saturday, December 10, after the group came to Middlesbrough to watch Boro play Brighton. But when they decided it was too cold, they visited several pubs in the town instead.

Trouble arose when the group arrived at the station and were heard by PC Andrew Ward, of British Transport Police, chanting EDL chants – as well as the highly inflammatory chant in question.

Addressing the defendants, Elizabeth Hutchinson, chairman of the bench, said: “It’s the court’s belief that you knew exactly what you were doing, that you deliberately set out to use racially abusive language and to intimidate members of the public.”

She added that the incident was aggravated by the fact that it was a group action which took place over a “length of time” where members of the public were present.

Between them, the defendants were fined £2,730 and ordered to pay £3,090 costs – adding up to £5,820. One person from the public gallery had to be escorted out by police after the sentencing.

Jak Beasley, 23, of Cedar Road, Bishop Auckland was fined £455 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Ross Williams, 23, of Ebberston Court, Spennymoor, was fined £420 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Christopher Caswell, 32, of West Auckland Road, Darlington, was fined £455 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Paul Ross, 48, of Auckland Wind, Shildon, was fined £525 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Dean Spence, 23, of Yew Close, Spennymoor, fined £455 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

Shaun Bunting, 33, of Fenhall Green, Newton Aycliffe, was fined £420 and ordered to pay £515 costs.

The EDL was formed in response to a protest in March 2009 organised by an Islamic group against troops returning from the war in Afghanistan.

The group states its aim is to demonstrate peacefully but conflicts with Unite Against Fascism and other opponents have led to street violence, anti-social behaviour and arrests.

In July last year, about 500 EDL supporters marched through Middlesbrough. The event, which was marked by a large police presence, passed off peacefully

Gazette Live