Scores of police had to break up clashes between members of the right-wing English Defence League (EDL) and Muslims in Luton town centre. Trouble flared after Kevin Carroll, 41, lost at appeal at Luton Crown Court to overturn a conviction for using threatening behaviour at an earlier demonstration.
Up to 80 officers had to keep a group of Carroll’s supporters, chanting ‘EDL’, separate from opposition protesters. Carroll had objected to Muslim demonstrators who had shouted abuse at British soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, during a homecoming parade in the town in March last year.
They had shouted “British soldiers go to hell” and called them “butchers of Basra” . Carroll verbally retaliated, swearing at the protesters and singing “bin Laden’s mother is a whore”. He was charged and subsequently convicted of using threatening words and behaviour likely to to cause fear harassment and alarm. He was given a conditional discharge.
