Man jailed for threatening to blow up mosques and cut Muslims’ body parts off

ITV News reports that Paul Hepplestall, a 39-year-old from Liverpool, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for posting a video online in which he spoke about blowing up mosques and attacking Muslims.

Hepplestall, who is seen to wear a plastic grenade and also hold a large sword in the video, was arrested after the footage was shared widely on social media.

Alongside his threats to “blow your mosques off this f****** planet”, Hepplestall also talked about attacking Muslims.

Brandishing the sword up to the camera, Hepplestall said, “I will cut each one of your ears off with a sword, I will cut your fingers, your toes, I will cut you a thousand times until you bleed out.”

Prosecutor Trevor Parry-Jones said Hepplestall recorded and uploaded the “horrific video” some time on June 4 and, within hours, police forces across the country were receiving complaints.

Hepplestall was sentenced after pleading guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to a charge of sending racially aggravated malicious communications. He was also given a five-year restraining order in relation to deleting his internet history.

Detective Constable Tom Patterson of Merseyside Police said, “Today’s verdict shows that Merseyside Police and the Crown Prosecution Service are relentless in their pursuit of people who commit hate crimes and will actively pursue anyone who misuses social media to broadcast messages of hate.

Recent Home Office figures show that Merseyside Police recorded over 2,260 racially or religiously aggravated hate crimes in 2016-17, a 28% increase on the 1,760 racially or religiously aggravated hate crimes recorded the previous year.

Anyone who comes across hateful footage online can report it to police by calling the non-emergency number 101. Alternatively, Islamophobic content can be reported to MEND’s Islamophobia Response Unit by completing the online form here.