A race hate thug, who threatened to blow up Muslims and gestured to slit the throat of a five-year-old outside a Newcastle mosque, has been sentenced to four years in jail.

On February 6, Alexander Bolam terrorised the worshippers who were picking their children up from an event at Heaton Mosque.

The 33-year-old made several aggressive threats, including saying he was a Christian and shouting, "You f****** Muslims taking over my country", before adding: "I'm going to cut your heads off, I'm going to behead you all, I'm going to blow you all up."

Bolam even bent over to a terrified child, nose-to-nose, and gestured a hand across the throat. He then pushed a man and urinated at the mosque's entrance.

Bolam admitted to racially aggravated assault, damage, and threats to kill charges. He got a four-year prison term and an additional three-year license period at Newcastle Crown Court.

In an interview, he said he was drunk that day and couldn't remember anything.

But Newcastle Crown Court heard that Bolam, who has 26 previous convictions, has made Islamophobic comments in the past online, including making calls to join the far-right group Britain's First.  

Victims living in fear

In a victim impact statement, the brothers he targeted said they thought he would kill them.

"Since the incident, we are living in fear and the actions have completely changed our lives," their statement said.

"The terror we felt when he bent down towards (the five-year-old), nose to nose and doing a hand gesture and making the comments he was making caused a great deal of trauma to all of us.

"Growing up in Heaton we have a sense of community and Bolam has completely ruined it and taken away the safe place for the community and to make it worse he urinated over a place of worship.

"Bolam claimed he spoke for the British public and it was his country and he said it was the right thing to do. That's not the case. The community generally were concerned for the behaviour and he doesn't represent them."

They added: "We believe he is a racist and his disgraceful actions have changed everybody's lives and it had a devastating effect."

Bolam's defence lawyer, Matthew Purves, said Bolam was ashamed and disgusted by his behaviour. "All he can do is seek to apologise about what he has put them through," he added.

Restraining order banning from mosques

Jailing Bolam, Judge Julie Clemitson said it was a "shameful episode" and imposed an indefinite restraining order banning him from any mosque in England and Wales.

Following his sentencing, Inspector Anita Morgan of Northumbria Police said Bolam was rightly jailed.

"People, including young children, were threatened by him as they left a place of worship and that is simply not acceptable anytime, anywhere.

"Hate crime of any kind within our communities will not be tolerated under any circumstances and we welcome the sentence handed down to the offender by the courts."

Insp Morgan added: "Members of the public should be aware that we take every report of racially aggravated crime extremely seriously and always do our utmost to bring those responsible for these appalling offences to justice."