A 36-year-old man has been convicted of conducting a sustained hate crime campaign targeting two religious communities, with attacks ranging from desecrating Islamic holy books at a hospital prayer room to writing antisemitic messages in a police cell.
Ibhraim Iqbal, from Leeds, was found guilty of two counts of religiously aggravated criminal damage and one count of criminal damage at Leeds District Magistrates’ Court on 4 February. The prosecution revealed he carried out multiple attacks at St James’s Hospital before demonstrating hostility towards a second faith group whilst in custody.
West Yorkshire Police arrested Iqbal on 10 December after hospital security staff detained him when he tried to enter the multi-faith room, which had been secured following earlier incidents. Once in his cell, Iqbal requested crayons from officers and used them to write “kill Jews” on the wall, extending his campaign of hatred to target the Jewish community.
The conviction follows a series of attacks on the hospital’s multi-faith prayer facility. In November, Iqbal smashed a framed Islamic scripture before launching an assault on multiple copies of the Quran, tearing out pages, setting them alight, and using them to block the toilet and sink.
CCTV footage proved crucial to the prosecution case, capturing Iqbal carrying a black bin liner through St James’s Hospital on 9 December. The bag was later recovered at the scene of the offence. Hospital staff discovered fresh criminal damage just seven minutes after cameras recorded him leaving the multi-faith room.
On that December visit, Iqbal deliberately stuffed miscellaneous items down drains to cause a blockage. When he returned the following day and found the prayer room locked due to the damage, security personnel intervened and police were called.
Prosecutors successfully linked the November and December hospital incidents by demonstrating an almost identical modus operandi in both attacks. The pattern of behaviour, timing and method used in the separate offences enabled the Crown Prosecution Service to secure convictions for both religiously aggravated crimes.
Luke Hopkinson, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS Yorkshire and Humberside, stated that Iqbal “carried out a deliberate and sustained campaign of hatred, targeting both Muslim and Jewish communities with his actions.”
The senior prosecutor emphasized the case comes during a period when prosecutors are handling record numbers of hate crime referrals from police forces. “I hope today’s conviction demonstrates the CPS’s commitment to tackling religiously aggravated hate crime, and reiterate how we will always seek to prosecute those who target others because of their faith where their conduct strays into criminality,” Hopkinson stated.
Crown Prosecution Service performance data for July to September 2025 revealed prosecutors received 4,358 cases from police flagged as containing hate crime elements. The figure represents a 14.7 per cent increase compared to the previous quarter between April and June 2025, and 2.8 per cent more than the same period in 2024.
During the three-month period from July to September 2025, prosecutors charged 88.1 per cent of hate crime cases referred to them by police. Iqbal’s convictions relate to offences committed between 29 November and 10 December 2025, with one count involving criminal damage to property valued under £5,000.
The CPS continues to prioritize prosecution of religiously aggravated hate crimes as referrals reach unprecedented levels across Yorkshire and Humberside and nationally.
