THREE men – two of them ex-soldiers – involved in petrol-bombing a Grimsby mosque days after the "barbaric" murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby have each been jailed for six years.
The two former soldiers each hurled two petrol bombs at the front of the mosque after being taken there in an accomplice's car.
They were later followed by a police community support officer and arrested.
Stuart Harness, 33, and fellow ex-soldier Gavin Humphries, 37, both of nearby Dixon Avenue, Grimsby, admitted arson, being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
Their accomplice, docks driver Daniel Cressey, 24, of Manchester Square, New Holland, denied aiding and abetting them but was convicted by a jury after a four-day trial at Grimsby Crown Court in November.
Jeremy Evans, prosecuting, told a sentencing hearing at Hull Crown Court that Drummer Lee Rigby was murdered in Woolwich, London, on May 22.
The "tragic" murder had "far-reaching consequences" and the "ripples" of it reached Grimsby and the worshippers of the mosque in Weelsby Road on May 26.
"This was a planned and calculated attack in which four home-made incendiary devices were thrown at the front of the mosque at a time when worshippers had completed their evening prayers and some had gone home," said Mr Evans. "There was an obvious risk to life."
Some of those inside the mosque managed to put out the flames using extinguishers.
Cressey drove the two ex-soldiers to the mosque. Harness was his cousin.
After the attack, just after 10pm, a police community support officer followed Humphries and Harness to the nearby home of Harness.
Mr Evans said Harness had been a soldier for 13 years, including serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had previously been based at Woolwich.
Humphries had served in the Army, including in the Royal Artillery and had taught English to Muslim children in Qatar, the court heard. Both had unblemished records.
CCTV footage showed Harness and Humphries preparing home-made bombs outside the Dixon Avenue address. Cressey was shown arriving and later drinking and talking with the others.
Fourteen seconds after the bombs were thrown, a worshipper began putting the flames out.
The ex-soldiers threw the bombs in a "cricket-type bowling action" as they would have been trained to hurl grenades, said Mr Evans.
"They were all involved in the planning and preparation of what was about to happen," he added.
Judge Mark Bury told the court that the murder of Lee Rigby "provoked national outrage and condemnation". The killers had recently been convicted by a jury and faced life prison sentences.
"Whatever your feelings of outrage were, you should have allowed justice to take its course," said Judge Bury.
Instead, Harness and Humphries carried out an act of retaliation. The victims were "entirely innocent, law-abiding Muslims" practising their religion in a peaceable way, said Judge Bury.
It would have been obvious that the mosque was being used at the time.
"This type of attack cannot be tolerated," said Judge Bury.
Source:
http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/ty...#ixzz2o8H4ZyBt
Two ex-UK Soldiers Jailed For Firebomb Attack on Mosque
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Originally Posted by tom cruise
and it will start a nationwide action going. Grimsby will be on the map big time then.”
