Racist is jailed

Darren J Conway covered the window of his Heaton Street flat with posters, literature and photographs which attacked the Prophet Mohammed and the Muslim religion.

When police searched the 44-year-old’s flat, they also found 16 cannabis plants growing under a heated lens in his bathroom.

He had previously been found guilty of the charges at Magistrates Court, and appeared at Lincoln Crown Court on Tuesday 6th March for sentencing.

Conway, a former BNP member and supporter of the English Defence League, attracted comments from passers-by and workers at nearby businesses with his offensive display.

Mr Lowe, prosecuting, described a number of the 17 posters and other such material displayed that were ‘undoubtedly offensive to members of the Muslim and Islamic faith’.

Among the slogans on show from his ground-floor window were ‘Jihad works both ways’, ‘no surrender’, ‘Muslims are the most hateful of them all’ and a letter confirming that he was a member of the BNP.

A passer-by reported Conway after being disturbed by the pictures of mutilated Muslims with graphic and obscene messages and imagery.

In Conway’s defence, the court heard how he had no history of racism and he was a carer for his ailing, elderly father who had suffered from multiple strokes.

Conway claimed that he put the posters and other literature in his window simply to attract the attention of the letting agent for his flat with whom he was in dispute, claiming that he had been left for months without electricity in three rooms and described the flat as uninhabitable with mould on the walls.

When sentencing Conway, Hon Judge Heath slammed his offensive behaviour.

“You put 17 offensive pieces and posters in the window of your ground-floor flat where they were there for all to see,” he said.

“To describe the material that you put in your window as grossly offensive would be an understatement, to Muslims and right-thinking members of the public.”

Judge Heath continued: “There is no place in a civilised society for conduct of that sort and the only sentence is an immediate custodial one.”

Conway was sentenced to three months for the production of cannabis and 12 month religiously aggravated harassment.