Man who threatened to ‘kill all Muslims’ in wake of Lee Rigby murder gets off with fine

A man who threatened to kill all Muslims during a racist tirade in the wake of the murder of Lee Rigby has been slapped with a £120 fine. Peter Levers, 33, of Circular Road, Staveley, was caught by police shouting at a taxi driver, and said “Muslims, I’ll kill them all.”

Chesterfield Magistrates court heard how Levers had been out drinking for around 16 hours, before the incident on Cavendish Street at 4.25am on May 24. Prosecuting, Belinda Ariss told the court he had asked police officers to take him home because he wanted to get in a car with a white driver and was “extremely drunk” at the time of the offence. Levers pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harrassment at the hearing on June 24.

Mitigating, Bob Bashforth for Levers, said: “This was two days after the Lee Rigby had been murdered in that horrific attack in Woolwich. It was very fresh in his mind, and in his drunk state it came to the surface and boiled over.” He added that the taxi driver is not thought to have heard the comments made by Levers.

But sentencing, chair of magistrates, Mr Keith Gosling, said: “Despite what went off a few days before there’s no excuse for this whatsoever.” Levers was given a £120 fine and ordered to pay £20 victim surcharge and £80 costs.

Derbyshire Times, 2 July 2013