Halifax mosque burglar who also 'violated' places of worship is jailed

Farshad Jafari, who came to England seeking asylum seven years ago, was jailed back in 2017 after a spate of “despicable” attacks on four mosques during which he used a homemade implement to "fish" money out of charity donation boxes.

Today (Thursday) the 28-year-old, of Queens Road, Halifax, was sentenced to three years in jail after he was confronted by an imam and another man during a burglary at the Noorani mosque on Gibraltar Road last November.

Bradford Crown Court heard how the complainant, who lived in a property attached to the mosque returned home at 11pm and found Jafari standing in his kitchen.

Prosecutor Georgina Coade said the man alerted the imam and they spotted Jafari in the street after they called the police.

Miss Coade said at one point Jafari reached into the pocket of his jacket and said:”I’ll stab you.”

No knife was produced by the defendant, who ran off, but Miss Coade said his fingerprints were later found on a safe in the mosque.

Jafari pleaded guilty to the burglary charge today and his barrister Gerald Hendron explained how his client had been granted asylum.

“He could not return to Iran because of his involvement in political protests,” said Mr Hendron.

He said the defendant, who had worked as a painter and decorator, developed a heroin and crack cocaine addiction and that had driven his offending.

Jafari was still on prison licence when he burgled the mosque last November and Judge Jonathan Rose said he had violated the laws of the country in the years since he was allowed to remain.

“You have violated places of worship,” said the judge.

“That causes harm, damage, fear and distress to those who practice their faith and visit these mosques to pray.

“The time has come when the court must respond by the imposition of a far more severe prison sentence than you have served in the past.”

The judge said the prison sentence was to punish Jafari and to protect the public from a man who “has no respect for their faith”.

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