Homophobic Hate Crime at Speakers Corner
On the 1 September 2021 Speakers Corner regular and Muslim firebrand Omar Mohamad, was found guilty of a homophobic hate crime . The offence occurred at Speakers Corner on Sunday 6 October 2019 and took an astounding 23 months to reach a final outcome.
Mohamad was found guilty under section 4A of the Public Order Act1986, whereby he caused with intent, harassment, alarm or distress, through the use of threatening, abusive and insulting words and behaviour.
Mohamad, failed to attend an initial hearing at Westminster Magistrates court on 26 August 2020, after which a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was finally tracked down in Birmingham and claimed that he did not know about the hearing. He attended a rescheduled first hearing at which he submitted a ‘not guilty’ plea. A full hearing was then scheduled at Westminster Magistrates court for 26 January 2021. At this hearing, Mohamad’s defence lawyer stated that they needed more time to prepare their defence case, despite more than 15 months having elapsed since the date of the offence. The three magistrates reluctantly agreed to this request, and a rescheduled hearing was set for 19 May 2021.
On the morning of the re-scheduled trial Mohamad sacked his lawyer and requested that the trial not proceed as he required a translator. Amazing that he had not considered this in…
