Former solider handed suspended sentence for ‘campaign of racial hatred” targeting Muslims and mosques with threatening letters

The Plymouth Herald reports on the suspended sentence handed to a former soldier with mental health problems who sent bomb threats to mosques and Muslims in the UK. 

Jamie Bond, 43, sent letters in red ink to three mosques in Rotherham in Yorkshire, Bristol and Cardiff and to two men in Halifax, whose names he had found through local media reports, warning: “Next time it will be a bomb, you Muslim scum”.

The letters were sent to the respective recipients between July and August 2016 and the letter sent to the men in Halifax were sent after Bond found their names “on a website which linked them to allegations of child abuse.”

Mr Bond sent an identical letter to the Communist party headquarters in Croydon, south London. Prosecutor Lee Bremridge told Plymouth Crown Court Bond also sent two letters to police in Luton calling on them to ban Islam.

The court heard Bond had previously been given a suspended prison sentence for an unrelated offence and it is thought officers took a DNA sample at the time which later proved useful in detecting him when the threatening letters were DNA tested.

The court heard Bond’s home was searched by counter-terrorism officers but nothing suspicious was found.

Michael Green, mitigating for Bond, said his client had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after serving in Northern Ireland for five years in the 1990s.

Judge Paul Darlow described Bond’s letters as “bilious and threatening”.

He added: “The messages are particularly corrosive at a time when we as a community are struggling with extremism.”

However, he handed Bond a suspended sentence after hearing of the defendant’s remorse for his actions which were only intended to “scare the recipients”.

Mr Bond pleaded guilty to eight counts of sending a malicious communication. He was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.