A man threatened to bomb a mosque during a racist rant. Garith Wood yesterday admitted behaving in a racially aggravated manner during the incident on May 9 last year.
Livingston Sheriff Court was told that Wood, 27, made racist comments about a 14-year-old Asian boy near Deans Mosque, Livingston. He then turned his attention to another Asian, Abdu Raman Bismillah, calling him a “black b******”. Part of his hateful tirade included threatening to bomb the Livingston Sunni Islamic Centre and Mosque, the court was told.
Wood, of Whitburn, had previously denied the charges and was due to stand trial yesterday. However, he changed his plea at the last minute and admitted two charges of acting in a racially aggravated manner and uttering racist comments. His not guilty plea to assaulting Mr Bismillah was accepted by the Crown. But he admitted a further charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner in Livingston on September 3 last year. Wood accepted that he has three pages of previous convictions.
Sheriff Douglas Kinloch adjourned the case to allow social workers to investigate. He told Wood: “I think the stage has been reached that reports are needed. Fines haven’t been effective in preventing you causing a disturbance and behaving in a way which is not acceptable, so I’m going to get background reports so that other options can be explored.”