Man banned from mosques in England and Wales while awaiting sentence for Bristol mosque attack

The Bristol Post and Daily Star report on the court appearance of a man charged with a racially aggravated public order offence for his alleged involvement in the attack on a mosque in Totterdown, Bristol on 17 January.

Kevin Crehan, 34, who was arrested last month in connection with the incident appeared before Bristol Crown Court and pleaded guilty to the charge, also accepting a religiously aggravated offence to cause Nasir Ahmed harassment, alarm or distress.

Crehan, one of four people arrested by Avon and Somerset police, will return for sentencing on 24 March. Crehan was released on bail but banned from any mosque in England and Wales until sentence is passed. He was told by the court that a custodial sentence was inevitable.

A further three individuals charged with a racially aggravated public order offence in connection with the attack, Alison Bennett, 46, Mark Bennett, 48, and Angelina Swailes, 31, have been released on bail on condition that they must not to go within 100 metres of any mosque. The trio are due at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on February 25.

The mosque in Totterdown was vandalised on the afternoon of Sunday 17 January with bacon wrapped around the door handles of the mosque, bacon sandwiches thrown at the doors of the mosque and a flag unfurled on a fence on the mosque’s perimeter bearing the words “No mosque wanted here” and “Bristol United Patriots”. Elderly worshippers who were inside the mosque at the time of the attack were also abused.