A jury in England recently cleared a man of charges related to religious hate offense despite him having dumped four pig heads on the doorstep of Solihull Community Center, where a Muslim event had been held. As revealed by CCTV footage, 34-year-old Carl Stephens was seen laying out the supine heads outside the community center on Hermitage Road earlier this year, but he defended himself before Birmingham Crown Court, saying he knew nothing about the controversy surrounding Solihull Community Center and he had been paid to carry out the outrageous act.

Stephens refused to accept that he had caused religiously aggravated distress or alarm to any community despite a Muslim event being held at the community center only five days before. The event was titled ‘Building a Masjid’. During investigation, the pig heads were found to have been spat on and the spit was linked by DNA evidence to Stephens. But the defendant, who has already served a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to abduction, said he was completely unaware of any Muslim event having been organized at the community center.

Stephens detailed how he had gone to a pub with his brother on the night of the incident, where they met a man, who offered them a lift home in his BMW. He said that once they reached Hermitage Road, the man in the car asked him to drop something off in front of the community center. Stephens was apparently asked if he could make the delivery and promptly passed some gloves and a knife. He said the man then opened the boot of his car, where the pig heads were kept in two different bags. Even though Stephens found the request to be strange, he agreed to do it after the man offered him £50.

At the time of the incident, there were allegations of Solihull Community Center being turned into a mosque without necessary permissions. An online petition called for the mosque to be shut down and it received signatures from more than 2,000 people.

Photo Credits: The Birmingham Mail