A HOMELESS man urinated against a mosque and hurled racist abuse at Muslims when told to clean up his mess, say community leaders.

While deploring his actions, leaders at a Worcester hostel and the mosque agree that the man needs help and do not wish to see him out on the streets without support.

The man was asked to clean up his mess after he was allegedly captured on CCTV relieving himself against a wall of the Central Mosque, next door to St Paul’s Hostel in Tallow Hill, Worcester, where he remains a resident.

When given a mop and bucket, the man is said to have become abusive to people at the mosque, prompting hostel staff to call police.

However, he will not be thrown out of the hostel despite being charged with a section five racially aggravated public order offence.

The incident happened in Tallow Hill last Thursday, August 22.

The hostel’s chief executive, Jonathan Sutton, branded the incident ‘deplorable’ and described the man’s behaviour and language, believed to have been committed while drunk, as ‘disgraceful’.

Mr Sutton was shown the mosque’s CCTV footage which he said provided ‘compelling evidence’ that the man had urinated against the entrance wall of the mosque near the gatepost.

He said: “St Paul’s Hostel has some very clear values which we expect people who live in our community to abide by. One of these is respect for others. It’s written on the wall when you come in. We do not tolerate racially motivated behaviour such as this. That’s what people would expect.”

He said staff at the hostel ‘immediately took action’ when they were informed by someone at the mosque what had happened and the culprit was identified. Mr Sutton said the hostel enjoyed a good relationship with the mosque but that the man had decided ‘not to repair the relationship but make it worse’.

Staff had wanted him to clean up the mess but he had done so ‘begrudgingly’ and launched a ‘tirade’.

“That’s why police became involved,” he said. However, Mr Sutton said the had had ‘a bloody hard life’ and that their responsibility at the hostel was to help him ‘rehabilitate and repent’.

They will continue to work with him and offer him support as they have done since he first became a resident nearly two years ago.

He added: “We cannot simply reject him or exclude him on the basis of this because life on the street is far worse. He won’t be ejected from our service because he needs our help.”

Mr Sutton described the incident as ‘rare’ and said that the mosque often cooked for hostel residents and provided gifts for homeless residents.

He also said it was typical of the dilemma faced by the hostel staff which sought to encourage people to behave sensibly and not break the law while recognising that residents are themselves often victims of abusive childhoods and families.

Mohammed Iqbal, of the Worcester Muslim Welfare Association at Central Mosque, said: “I was not present when this incident occurred. A member of my staff confronted the man who was urinating against the walls next to our educational building – the time this incident took place was when parents were dropping children for the educational classes.

“Luckily no parents witnessed the incident as this would have been a serious concern. When the man was approached by my staff member he quickly moved on.

“I was made aware of this incident and CCTV was checked and passed on to Jonathan at the hostel. It was quickly actioned by Jonathan and Amanda.

“I was made aware by the hostel that the man was made to clean the wall he urinated on, this is also when the racial remarks were made. He felt unhappy cleaning it and thus vented his anger with racial language. The hostel was upset with his remarks and quickly reported the matter to the police.

“Worcester Muslim Welfare Association were happy the matter was dealt with with great efficiency by the local police team and the hostel who kept me informed.

“As an organisation we were upset with this whole incident. There is no room for hateful language and clearly the man needs to be educated that hate is a disease which leads to breakdown of communities. If you can hate someone’s race/religion you also have the ability to love and accept people are who are different to you thus making our communities stronger and successful. I was upset that he was living in the hostel and clearly his actions may lead to him being expelled, this would be a great shame as we clearly would not like to see him become homeless.”

  • Alexander Koker, 36, of St Paul’s Hostel, is due to appear at Worcester Magistrates Court on September 12, charged with a racially-aggravated public order offence in relation to this alleged incident.