{"id":273711,"date":"2025-07-19T03:36:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273711\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T03:36:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:36:25","slug":"man-doesnt-know-why-he-released-rats-at-sheffield-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273711\/","title":{"rendered":"Man ‘doesn’t know’ why he released rats at Sheffield mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"

17 July 2025, 07:35<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The man released rats near the Grand Mosque on Grimesthorpe Road, Sheffield.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nGoogle Maps<\/p>\n

A man who deliberately released wild rats near a mosque has avoided jail time.<\/p>\n

Edmund Fowler, 66, drove to the Grand Mosque in Sheffield four times to release caged rats by the place of worship.<\/p>\n

Between May and June he filmed himself taking the vermin out his vehicle and encouraging the animals to enter the mosque. <\/p>\n

He told Sheffield Magistrates’ Court<\/a> it still “remains a mystery” why he did it.<\/p>\n

Fowler, of Skelwith Drive, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to four counts of racially aggravated harassment at a previous hearing.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and banned from going near a mosque for 18 months.<\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>11,500 companies struck off Companies House register after crackdown<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>Driver who killed mother and daughter on Boxing Day was \u2018racing\u2019 at up to 84mph in 30mph zone<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Leicester,<\/p>\n

Leicester, Leicestershire, UK 30th May 2021. UK News. Brown rats forage for food in an inner city park in Leicester City Centre. Alex Hannam\/Empics.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nAlamy
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Fowler must also undertake 15 rehabilitation activity days and he is banned from entering certain areas of the city.<\/p>\n

He was also ordered to pay \u00a3239 in costs.<\/p>\n

He could be seen in CCTV footage driving his Audi to the mosque on Grimesthorpe Road.<\/p>\n

Fowler then shouted racist insults at people entering the place of worship.<\/p>\n

The court heard how he “deliberately targeted a local mosque” and caused “upset and shock”.<\/p>\n

The mosque manager said, in a victim impact statement: “It is evident people using the mosque are Muslim.<\/p>\n

“They are scared of further harassment and are now too scared to come to the mosque.”<\/p>\n

Fowler’s defence solicitor said the man knew his crime was “appalling” but he did not know why he did it.<\/p>\n

It was suggested, in court, that he may have had a mental breakdown due to his various caring responsibilities – including caring for his wife with breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Suzanne Irish-Deverill, chair of the bench, told Fowler she was “disgusted” by the footage and that his crimes were “pre-planned on multiple occasions”.<\/p>\n

She continued: “You also had the audacity to record it yourself. It has had significant impact and caused shock and distress.<\/p>\n

“People are entitled to travel to a place of worship without being racially or religiously harassed – it is a hate crime.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"17 July 2025, 07:35 The man released rats near the Grand Mosque on Grimesthorpe Road, Sheffield. Picture: Google…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,1620,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-273711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-sheffield","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114877811040657039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}