A man who left a pig’s head on the steps of a community centre used for Muslim worship in Leicester was sentenced to 12 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for a year on Monday.
The 24-year old office worker, Liam Ferrar, admitted a charge of religiously aggravated harassment after dumping the frozen animal head outside the centre in Leicester on Boxing Day last year.
Sentencing him at the city’s magistrates court, District Judge John Temperley said the offence was “to some extent planned, premeditated and targeted”.
“You were well aware of the significance of your actions,” he added. “You knew that what you did would cause great distress, indeed that was your intention.”
Members of the As-Salaam Trust arrived to open up at 7.30am the next morning to be greeted by the animal’s grisly remains.
They told police they had been “sickened and disgusted” by what they discovered and had found it “extremely distressing”.
Ferrar admitted to officers he was guilty following his arrest saying he was drunk after attending a party with friends the previous evening when he had decided to go through with the stunt.
He told police he got the pig’s head from a friend’s wedding in the summer, and had then kept it frozen until he dumped it.
Louise Cox, prosecuting, told the court a group calling itself Forgotten Estates had stepped up protests at the community centre last summer, before the incident took place.
Defence solicitor Stephen Morris said the protest group, of which Ferrar was a member, aimed to highlight the lack of facilities in the area.
No jail for man who left pig's head at Muslim centre
