Zana Hassan interrupted a Sunday afternoon church service in Barnard Castle, County Durham "shouting and swearing". After being arrested by police, he threatened to "kill all the English" making references to the war in Iraq.
Hassan of Hillbeck Street, Bishop Auckland, County Durham admitted to the racially aggravated public order offence that took place on Sunday July 9th. However, despite calls from magistrates for him to face more serious charges, lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service deemed the offence to be "low-level disorder". Hassan was given a conditional 18-month discharge and also ordered to stay one hundred yards away from the church.
Handing down the conditional discharge, the bench chairman Nick Edger said: "With regards to sentence, our hands as a bench are tied."
UKIP MEP Mike Hookem demanded that Hassan be deported by the Home Office staff.
Speaking to the Daily Express, MEP Hookem said: "Do we really need this sort of person in our country?
"He caused terror and distress so of course there should have been a more serious charge than public order."
Ansab Shan, prosecuting, told Newton Aycliffe Magistrates Court: "The defendant then became more aggressive and abusive."
Ben Pagman, mitigating, said Hassan had been in the UK since 2008 but he was "effectively here illegally without permission to remain.
"The court may regard this as perhaps not at the sinister end while clearly extremely distressing for the people who witnessed it, but more representative of the frustrations and drunken ramblings of a man who finds himself in a position that I have already described, unable to work or claim benefits."