A Muslim convert from Willesden who threatened to bomb a Conservative MP’s home after she voted in favour of British air strikes in Syria has been jailed.
A Muslim convert from Willesden who threatened to bomb a Conservative MP’s home after she voted in favour of British air strikes in Syria has been jailed.
Craig Wallace, of Teignmouth Road, issued the threat to Charlotte Leslie on social networking site Facebook on the UK Truth Movement’s page.
The 23-year-old, who converted to Islam while serving a jail term for attempted robbery, said he wanted to show the Bristol North MP “what it’s like to murder innocents”.
He issued the threat three weeks after he was released from his sentence of almost five years.
He wrote: “I’m going to smash her windows then drop a bomb on her house while she’s tucked up in bed.”
In a second post on December 3, the day after MPs voted to authorise the air strikes, he said: “I’m going to find her and show her what it’s like to murder innocents. You dirty pig-f****** w***e.”
Just four days before he threatened Ms Leslie he had stood outside Willesden Green Tube station holding a placard asking for a hug.
On the same day Cllr Sam Stopp, Labour councillor for Wembley Central, uploaded an image of himself hugging Wallace on social networking site Twitter.
When contacted by the Times and informed of Wallace’s identity, Cllr Stopp said: “I had no idea who he was. He was standing out of the station and offering a hug which I thought was a nice gesture.
“It’s sad that what I thought was a nice gesture at the time was clearly not what he was actually thinking. It’s a shame he was not being sincere in his actions.”
Wallace, who calls himself Muhammad Mujahid Islam on Facebook, has a string of convictions for violent offences including possession of a knife.
He had previously pleaded guilty to sending threatening communications claiming he was “venting his anger” and had not had any sleep because he had been “protesting for two or three days”.
He also claimed he had not been taking his anti-psychotic medication for a personality disorder.
He was sentenced to eight weeks in jail by District Judge Mark Jabbit at Willesden Magistrates’ Court.
Mr Jabbit told him: “You personalised a very, very, very serious debate by using not just vile, but I would describe it as misogynistic, language towards a sitting MP in a public forum, which no doubt caused distress.”
The court heard Wallace had written a letter of apology to Ms Leslie, using his “limited education”, in an attempt to allay the distress and harm he accepted he had caused.
Related link: Willesden man threatened to bomb the home of MP Charlotte Leslie after she voted for Syria air strikes
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