Youth who joined EDL attack on Redbridge Islamic Centre fails to get sentence reduced

A 15-year-old boy locked up after a racist mob attack on Redbridge Islamic Centre, has failed to convince judges he was too harshly punished.

The youth, who cannot be named because of he is age, was among a throng which massed outside the mosque in Eastern Avenue, Redbridge, in March last year, London’s Appeal Court heard, engaging in “racist chanting and seeking to damage a window and outside fence”.

Lord Justice Moses, who described the incident as “serious, racist mob violence”, added that a brick was also hurled at the mosque’s imam during the fracas.

The youth was handed a two-year detention term at Snaresbrook Crown Court in September last year after he was convicted of violent disorder.

On Friday his lawyers challenged that sentence as “manifestly excessive”.

But Lord Justice Moses, sitting with Justice Singh and Justice Mackay, rejected the appeal, saying: “The gravity of the offence fully justified this sentence”.

Ilford Recorder, 12 July 2012