A man who scrawled “kill jews” on a cell wall with crayons after he was arrested for stuffing Korans down a hospital toilet has been found guilty of hate crimes, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.
Ibhraim Iqbal, 36, from Leeds, was found guilty of two counts of religiously aggravated criminal damage and another count of criminal damage at Leeds District Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, the CPS confirmed.
The CPS said the conviction comes as prosecutors deal with a record number of hate crime referrals.
A spokesman said Iqbal smashed a framed Islamic scripture before defacing multiple Korans in a multi-faith room at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, in November last year.
He tore out pages, setting them alight and using them to block the sink and toilet.
Iqbal then returned to the hospital two weeks later and deliberately stuffed items down the drains to cause a blockage, the spokesman said.
He was detained by hospital security staff when he returned the following day and attempted to access the multi-faith room again but found it locked due to the earlier damage.
After he was arrested, he asked for crayons and used them to write the “kill Jews” on his cell wall, the spokesman said.
Iqbal will be sentenced at the same court on February 16.
Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS Yorkshire and Humberside Luke Hopkinson said: “Ibhraim Iqbal carried out a deliberate and sustained campaign of hatred, targeting both Muslim and Jewish communities with his actions.
“This comes at a time where our prosecutors are working on the highest ever number of hate crime cases referred to us by police.
“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.”
The CPS said data for July to September 2025 showed it received 4,358 cases from police which have been flagged as having a hate crime element, which is a 14.7% increase on the previous quarter, and 2.8% up on the same period in 2024.