A jury has cleared a man of religious hate offence after he dumped four pigs heads outside a Solihull community centre where a Muslim event had been held, the Birmingham Mail reports.
Carl Stephens, 34, was captured on CCTV leaving the heads at Solihull community centre on Hermitage Road on April 12.
But the defendant told Birmingham Crown Court he did not know anything about the controversy surrounding the centre and that he had been paid to dump the heads.
Stephens, of The Radleys, Marston Green, denied causing religiously aggravated alarm or distress.
The court heard five days earlier a Muslim themed event had been held at the centre, called Building a Masjid.
On the evening in question the heads were found by a passer-by, along with spit which was linked by DNA evidence to the defendant.
Stephens, who had previously served a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to kidnap, said he had been unaware of any Muslim-themed event at the centre.
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He said he had gone to a pub with his brother where he met a man who offered him a lift home in his BMW car.
He said they had driven to Hermitage Road and the man had told him he was going to “drop something off” at the community centre.
Stephens said the driver then asked him if he could make the delivery and passed him some gloves and a knife. He said the man then opened the boot and showed him the pigs heads which were in two bags.
Stephens said he though the request was “strange” but agreed to do it after the man offered him £50.
