A man accused of taking part in an attack on Kingston Mosque denied making up lies to clear his name, a court has heard.

The prosecution claimed all nine men on trial at Kingston Crown Court could be identified on CCTV walking toward the mosque in a large group on November 21, 2010.

Martin Pottle, 23, of Hanworth, interrogated by police on January 6, 2011, was accused in his interview of making up a story about walking to Sainsbury’s with a friend, whose name he could not remember, so his friend could top-up his phone.

Jordan Ellingham, 21, of Feltham, said he went on the march to be “a bit patriotic”, heard people say “let’s go to the mosque” and was “intrigued” so went to East Road, the jury heard.

Mr Ellingham told police: “I didn’t know what was going on. A bit of shouting and then I think a few things being thrown by people.” He said: “I weren’t aggressive, weren’t violent.”

Kingston Guardian, 21 March 2012

As we have previously noted, both Pottle and Ellingham are associates of Joel Titus, the English Defence League’s former national youth organiser, as is another of the defendants, Paul Abley. Last year, following a series of violent incidents on EDL demonstrations, Titus was slapped with an ASBO banning him from attending any further EDL protests or loitering outside mosques.