Man who wanted to “stab an Imam in the neck” jailed for two years

The Independent reports that an armed man who “hunted for Muslims” to stab in London has been jailed.

Mickey Sage, 24, “pulled a knife on people asking them if they were Muslim” in Camberwell Green in the early hours of 7 June.

He was stopped and searched by officers before carrying out his plan but declared his intentions while being taken into custody.

Police said that a number of “alarmed and distressed” members of the public assisted police who arrived at the scene, informing them where Sage had hidden his knife.

Sage was arrested for possessing an offensive weapon and confessed on the way back to the police station, “It was my knife and I was out to kill a Muslim”. He also admitted he had hoped to find an Imam to attack and stated “he would be a martyr for England and stab an Imam in the neck”.

Sage pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court to two religiously aggravated charges of threatening a person with a knife. He was sentenced to two years and three months in prison.

Detective Constable Samuel Cafferty, from the Metropolitan Police, said Sage went “with a large knife with the clear intention to find Muslims to stab. Hate crime like this has no place in any society.”

Anyone who suffers an Islamophobic hate crime and is in immediate danger should contact police on 999. You can report Islamophobic hate crime to police on the non-emergency number 111 or via MEND’s Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU) here.