By JAMES RUSH

Four men have been jailed for an attack on a mosque just a day after Drummer Lee Rigby was killed.

Michael Manyweathers, 49, Jeremy Rochester, 33, Robert Mullins, 35 and Trevor Mullins, 38, each pleaded guilty to racially aggravated criminal damage after windows at the Dorset Islamic Cultural Association, in Poole, were broken on May 23.

Manyweathers, of Poole, Robert and Trevor Mullins, both of Shaftesbury, and Rochester, of Bournemouth, were each sentenced to four months in prison by a judge at Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday, prosecutors said.

They were also each ordered to pay £150 compensation to the Dorset Islamic Cultural Association.
Richard Oakley, district crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in Wessex, said: ‘Robert Mullins, Trevor Mullins and Jeremy Rochester and Michael Manyweathers went to Dorset Islamic Centre on May 23 with the intention of causing damage to the property.

‘This crime was religiously aggravated as the four defendants clearly targeted the mosque.

‘An off-duty police officer who was walking along Ashley Road in Poole heard the sound of smashing glass coming from the windows of the centre and walked to the back of the building to see what was happening.

‘Three of the defendants were present. One was carrying a piece of wood approximately 3ft long.

‘The men saw him and one shouted at him “We are English mate, who do you think you are”.

‘After a short confrontation, the males walked to a stationary car and were driven off by the defendant Robert Mullins.’

Mr Oakley said the incident was sparked by a conversation in a pub in Poole about the death of Drummer Rigby in Woolwich, London.

‘Not long before the incident, the defendants were seen drinking at the Grasshopper Public House in Poole, where a man matching the description of Trevor Mullins expressed anger concerning the murder of Lee Rigby, which had occurred the day before in Woolwich,’ he said.

‘The four men then drove to the mosque with the specific intention of causing damage.

‘CCTV evidence showed Trevor Mullins, Jeremy Rochester and Michael Manyweathers causing criminal damage to windows at the mosque.

‘They pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

‘We hope that with this prosecution the public will be reassured that the CPS takes very seriously any religiously and racially motivated attack and will robustly prosecute those cases when there is sufficient evidence and is in the public interest to do so.’

The attack on the mosque in Dorset is one of several similar incidents that have happened across the country since Drummer Rigby died.

Earlier this week swastikas and racist graffiti were painted on the walls and windows of a mosque in Redditch, Worcestershire.

Police in Walsall launched a major hate-crime investigation when a small home-made bomb exploded near a mosque last weekend.

A 75-year-old man is under arrest in connection with that incident.

Last week two men were charged in relation to an alleged arson at a mosque in Gloucester, and an Islamic cultural centre in Grimsby was hit by petrol bombs last month.

Mosques in Braintree, Essex, and Gillingham, Kent, have also been targeted.

Source: Mail Online