Racist jailed for petrol bombing of mosque

‘Appear to relish violence’

A RACIST thug who petrolbombed a mosque has been jailed for almost four years.

Thomas Conington – who has a swastika tattoo on his chest – targeted Edinburgh’s Central Mosque in September.

The 29-year-old also started a fire there a year earlier.

Conington had earlier pleaded guilty to a string of crimes including wilful fire-raising, all aggravated by religious prejudice.

At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Lord Burns imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction and ordered Conington to serve at least three years and nine months in jail.

The judge said: ‘You are a bigot and have a long history of behaviour of that nature. You appear to relish violence.’

The court heard Conington was a ‘racist individual’ with a neck tattoo ‘with lettering in the style of the Nazi SS’.

Already guilty of a fire at the Potterow mosque in July 2015, on September 18 last year he lit a ‘Molotov cocktail’ and launched it over the gates.

Prosecutor Jim Keegan, QC, said Keegan: ‘The item smashed and witnesses saw flames travel along the side wall.’

Conington also admitted acting in a racially aggravated manner by hurling abuse at supermarket security guard Yakub Moro in the capital on March 3.

Matthew Auchincloss, defending, said: ‘This is a very disturbed young man.’