A WELLINGTON man has been found guilty of carrying out a racially or religiously motivated attack on a mosque in Taunton.

Ashley Oliver, aged 35, of Bulford, who was previously of no fixed abode, was convicted after a trial held in Taunton Deane Magistrates Court on Friday (September 25).

He was charged with causing racially and/or religiously aggravated criminal damage to the Taunton Islamic Centre, in Tower Lane, Taunton.

Oliver was convicted along with Taunton man, Alan Galloway, also aged 35, of East Reach, who was charged with the same offence.

Both men had been remanded on bail after an earlier hearing in the magistrates court in February, and Oliver had also appeared in January when he was considered too drunk to be able to enter a plea.

Neither man was represented on Friday for the trial.

Prosecuting solicitor Fleur Bullivant told the court the pair had broken a window at the mosque either intentionally or being reckless as to whether the property would be destroyed.

Several windows of the mosque were smashed in an early morning incident following which police issued CCTV images and appealed for help to identify two men on Saturday, September 6, last year.

Ms Bullivant said the offences were religiously aggravated within the terms of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

Oliver was fined £180 and ordered to pay £325 toward the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) costs of bringing the case to court.

The magistrates also made a restraining order against Oliver banning him from entering any part of the mosque premises until September 24 next year.

Galloway was also fined £180 and made subject to the same restraining order, and was further ordered to pay £325 CPS costs and a £72 victim fund surcharge.