UK Man Jailed for Four Years for Threatening Muslims
Race hate thug Alexander Bolam threatened to behead and blow up Muslims attending an event for children at a Tyneside mosque - even gesturing as if to cut the neck of a terrified five-year-old.
Bolam was hanging around Heaton Mosque as families collected youngsters on February 6 this year and started engaging with them as they left. He then turned aggressive and made death threats, even bending down nose-to-nose with one youngster and making a hand gesture across his neck, threatening to kill him.
A court heard Bolam had previously posted on social media indicating a hatred for followers of Islam and Newcastle Crown Court heard he may have borne a grudge because a man he believed his former partner had cheated on him with was a Muslim.
Rachel Glover, prosecuting, said when Bolam started talking to one of the victims, he initially claimed he was not racist and wanted to know about the religion. But he then went on to say "You lot hate other people, you lot hate everybody" and "I know people on Shields Road that are terrorists."
The man went inside to warn the Imam of his conduct and two five-year-olds came outside and were with the man's brother. Miss Glover said: "(The man) then heard shouting outside and saw the defendant was shouting at his brother."
After making comments about "you f****** Muslims taking over my country" and saying he was a Christian, Bolam said: "I'm going to cut your heads off, I'm going to behead you all, I'm going to blow you all up."
Miss Glover said: "He turned to one of the five-year-old boys and did a hand motion across his neck gesturing that he was cutting his neck."
He then pushed and shoved the man, saying he was a boxer and did mixed martial arts before urinating in the door of the mosque. He was arrested a short time later on Shields Road and was intoxicated.
The brothers said in a victim impact statement said the incident made them extremely sad. They said: "We live normal and peaceful lives and had an honest belief he was going to kill us after the threats.
"Since the incident we are living in fear and the actions have completely changed our lives. The terror we felt when he bent down towards (the five-year-old), nose to nose and doing a hand gesture and making the comments he was making caused a great deal of trauma to all of us.
"Growing up in Heaton we have a sense of community and Bolam has completely ruined it and taken away the safe place for the community and to make it worse he urinated over a place of worship.
"Bolam claimed he spoke for the British public and it was his country and he said it was the right thing to do. That's not the case. The community generally were concerned for the behavior and he doesn't represent them."
They added that previous online posts on social media by Bolam show he has ill-feeling toward the Muslim community and added: "We believe he is a racist and his disgraceful actions have changed everybody's lives and it had a devastating effect."
Bolam, who has 26 previous convictions, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault, racially aggravated damage and making threats to kill. The 33-year-old, of Holystone Crescent, High Heaton, was jailed for four years with an extended licence period of a further three years.
Judge Julie Clemitson also imposed an indefinite restraining order banning him from attending at, or loitering near, any mosque in England and Wales. The judge described it as a "shameful episode" and told him: "Your behaviour has had an effect on the entire community, not just at that mosque but of the surrounding community in Heaton.
"Families were coming and going from the mosque to collect their young children who had been attending inside." She added: "This whole episode was made substantially more serious by the presence of children, not just those two little boys but all of the families coming and going from the mosque.
Judge Clemitson labelled Bolam urinating "a filthy act of desecration" and said his behavior had a "profound impact".
"The threats you uttered were bound to cause other people fear when targeted at them because of their religious beliefs in the very place they gathered to practice their religion."
The judge added that Bolam appears to have directed hostilities to Muslims because the man he thought his former partner had been unfaithful with was Muslim. And she said social media posts from as long ago as 2013 showed he had a hatred towards followers of Islam.
Matthew Purves, defending, said: "He is ashamed and finds it disgusting, the way he behaved. All he can do is seek to apologize about what he has put them through.
"He was in a drunken stupor and engaged in the most horrific manner with insults towards wholly innocent people going about their lawful, happy lives. He will have terrified them, he recognizes that." The court heard he has mental health issues and a difficult upbringing and references from neighbors and his employer showed a different side to his character.
Source: chroniclelive.co.uk
