A man threatened to “blow up” an Islamic book shop in north London before telling staff he wanted to “kill the Muslims”.
David Moffatt, 39, has been sentenced after pleading guilty to religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm and distress.
He was wearing an orange high-vis jacket and trousers when he entered the bookshop on Cricklewood Broadway, near Brent Cross, on the afternoon of May 23.
He made violent threats to the Cricklewood Islamic Bookshop and Muslims in general before leaving.
Moffatt was arrested at 11.30pm on the same day after calling police himself to allege that he had been threatened by somebody.
Defending himself during police questioning, Moffat said: “I’m not anti-Muslim, I’m Catholic.”
On Friday, he was sentenced at Willesden Magistrates’ Court to a community order with an unpaid work requirement of 100 hours within 12 months. He was also made pay £620 in costs and a victim surcharge of £85.
Detective Inspector Madeline Ryder, from Brent’s Community Safety Unit, said: "Hate crime is unacceptable and Brent’s Community Safety Unit is committed to tackling hate crime in all its forms, supporting victims and their families and bringing perpetrators like Moffatt to justice."
Hate Crime can be reported through 999 in an emergency, by dialling 101 in a non-emergency, directly at a police station, through the MOPAC Hate Crime app or through community reporting methods such as Tell MAMA for Islamophobic incidents and the Community Security Trust (CST) for anti-Semitic incidents.
