EDL supporters jailed for attack on Mosque

Four racist youths were jailed for their attack on a Mosque and hurling a brick at the Mosques’s Imam.

The gang pelted the Mosque with bricks and stones before trying to storm their way in screaming racist obscentities at worshippers.

Rocky Beale, 19, of Purleigh Avenue, Woodford Green and Eliot Jones, 19, of Keswick Gardens, Redbridge, pelted the centre with bricks, along with 18-year-old Matthew Stephenson, of Burrow Road, Hainault.

Harry Deluca, 16, whose name can now be revealed after an order was lifted by the judge, also pelted the centre and repeatedly screamed “EDL” throughout the assault on March 24.

All four denied violent disorder but were convicted by a jury last month after just 90 minutes of deliberation.

Judge Timothy King sentenced Beale, Jones and Stephenson to three-and-a-half years each in a young offenders’ institution during the hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Deluca, of Manford Way, Hainault was given a two-year detention and training order.

The judge told them: “It is difficult, it seems to me, to imagine a case of violent disorder more serious than this one.”

Cllr Shoaib Patel, cabinet member for community safety on Redbridge Council, stated,

This shows that Redbridge will not tolerate racial abuse after the community has worked hard to promote strong cohesion

Anti racist campaigners have long argued this is the net effect when racist organizations such as the English Defence League are given legitimacy by the media and the police.

Simon Woolley

Picture: Damaged Redbridge Mosque