Officers serving with the National Domestic Extremism Unit have spoken of their satisfaction after a man was barred from attending any Islamic-related sites and ordered to steer clear of English Defence League protests.

Woolwich Crown Court was told how John McAndrew had been jailed for a minimum of seven months for affray and common assault in December 2011.

And at a hearing on February 20 2012 he was served with a Conviction-Related Anti Social Behaviour Order (CRASBO). The move means he must now not enter mosques, Islamic cultural centres or Muslim festival sites in Greater London for five years. He is also barred from attending any public demonstration organised by, or in conjunction with the EDL or promote their activities within England and Wales.

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Eleven members of a drunken racist mob who terrorised two cafe workers in Carlisle are today behind bars. The senior judge at Carlisle Crown Court, Paul Batty QC, imposed sentences totalling nearly 15 years for their threatening racist behaviour which he described as “feral” and “disgraceful”.

One of the longest jail terms – 18 months – was imposed on 33-year-old former soldier Andrew Ryan, who played a leading role in the abuse.

The group targeted the Manhattan Cafe, on Botchergate, at the end a drinking session last May when they celebrated Ryan’s release from jail for another racist offence. He had served a 70-day term for burning a copy of the Koran holy book, stolen from Carlisle Library, in the city centre.

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A businessman who planned to turn a social club into a Muslim centre says he is unable to find a new site for his project – a year on from a suspected arson attack.

The spot where Shotton Lane Social Club once stood still lies empty and no-one has ever been prosecuted for the blaze that destroyed the community building on February 4 last year.

The shocking incident, which saw more than 100 people evacuated from their homes, happened just weeks after Monchab Ali – chairman of the Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society – announced his plan to turn the empty venue into an Islamic cultural centre.

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A former Carlisle soldier just released from jail for publicly burning the Koran was among nearly a dozen people who racially abused two takeaway workers.

The city’s crown court heard that Andrew Ryan, 33, and his brother Matthew Ryan, 27, were part of a group who threatened and racially abused two Turkish men at Manhattan Pizza in Botchergate last year.

The Ryan brothers, along with three other men and four women, pleaded guilty to two charges of using racially aggravated threatening behaviour. All admitted that their abuse of the two takeaway workers had been inspired by their mistaken belief that the men were Pakistani.

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