Police officer who shared pro-Hamas material sentenced but avoids custody order

A police officer who admitted to sharing pro-Hamas images and was convicted of terrorism offences, was sentenced yesterday to a community order.

Mohammed Adil, 26, from Bradford, was a district student officer with West Yorkshire Police in the process of training.

Last month, Mr Adil pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to two charges of publishing images which gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that he was supporting Hamas, a proscribed antisemitic genocidal terror group.

Mr Adil’s offences were committed shortly after Hamas carried out barbaric attacks in Israel on 7th October, murdering over 1,200 Israelis and taking some 250 people hostage. 

He posted several videos, including one, which he posted on WhatsApp. On 20th October, showing images of Saddam Hussein and rockets being launched with the caption “rockets to Israel”. 

In another video, posted on the 28th, a man speaking in Arabic with English subtitles referenced purifying the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem from “the abomination of the Jews” and the “aggressive Zionists”. 

Another video was found from 31st October on his WhatsApp, which referred to Yemeni groups attacking “positions of the Zionist Israeli regime”.

On the same day, Mr Adil’s colleague saw that he also posted a further image, which showed two men wearing headbands displaying the logo of the military wing of Hamas. The caption on the image, attributed to a senior Hamas commander, read: “Today is the time for the Palestinian people to rise, set their path straight, and establish an independent Palestinian state.”

In November, Mr Adil posted a video showing a man wearing a headscarf and headband emblazoned with a Hamas logo. The caption, attributed to a Hamas spokesperson, read: “We will hold accountable all those who occupied our lands, and Allah will hold accountable all those who remained silent against this occupation and oppression.”

In the same month, another post featured a man speaking in Arabic with English subtitles saying: “Until Muslims fight the Jews, Muslims who are people of creed, people of faith, will kill them.”

Following the series of posts, Mr Adil, who was reported by two of his colleagues, was suspended whilst under investigation by Counter-Terrorism Policing North East. 

A list of companies to boycott for supposedly supporting Israel was discovered on his phone, along with memes that said: “Israel to the Arab world is like a cancer to the human body. Arabs should unite to uproot it.”

Another video on his phone showed a speech by someone suggesting that Israel carried out the 7th October attacks.

On 1st May, Mr Adil was charged and he pleaded guilty the next day at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Following his plea, Mr Adil was sentenced to an eighteen-month community order, which includes a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 35 days, 160 hours of unpaid work, forfeiture or destruction of phone, £85 costs and £114 victim surcharge to be paid within 28 days.

Notwithstanding the terror convictions, he was not given a custodial sentence.

This is not the first time that this judge – the Chief Magistrate, Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring – has courted controversy in relation to antisemitic terror. Two years ago he was disciplined by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office following a complaint by a member of Campaign Against Antisemitism for “giving the impression that he endorsed” a “contentious political cause” when judging a case of a man who wore Hamas and Islamic Jihad t-shirts in Golders Green. His conduct had “fallen below the standards expected”.

The Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor “took into account that, with hindsight, the judge had accepted his remarks were capable of giving such an impression and had expressed regret”.

This is also not the first time that he avoided giving a convicted defendant a custodial order. In 2022, Judge Goldspring sentenced the then-youngest person to be convicted of terror offences to a “high-intensity” referral order for twelve months. He believed that a custody order could undo the “rehabilitative” progress that the child, who had learning difficulties, had made.

The same year, a sixteen-year-old boy, who reportedly wrote online, “I am a domestic terror threat. I will bomb a synagogue,” and appeared to begin trying to realise this ambition, avoided a custodial sentence in a case on which Mr Goldspring was the presiding judge.

Of that offence, Judge Goldspring said: “It is the scale, scope and nature of your hatred for fellow men and women. In fact, my heart sank when I read the case papers for the first time.”

However, Judge Goldspring reportedly opined that it would be inappropriate to impose a custodial punishment and that this could jeopardise the positive rehabilitative steps that the boy had apparently made. Judge Goldspring said: “I’m of the view, albeit I struggled greatly with making the decision, that a non-custodial sentence would be in the public interest.”

In yet another case, in 2021, Judge Goldspring changed his mind when sentencing a neo-Nazi teenager from giving him a custodial sentence to handing him a twelve-month referral order.

Of his decision, he said: “My initial view was to send you into custody for twelve months, I have taken a step back, I am satisfied I don’t need to do that…it is really important that you take this opportunity to pause and think. I have to be honest there will be almost no way out if I see you in court again.”

He added: “You clearly work very hard in school and are obviously very, very intelligent. Although, I don’t want anyone to get the impression that someone less intelligent should be treated less well.”