Watch: Man releases rat into mosque in racist attack
Edmund Fowler, 66, let a rat out from a cage and into the grounds of the Grand Mosque in Sheffield last month, while filming the incident on his phone.
CCTV from outside the mosque also captured Fowler in the act of taking a cage containing the rodent out of the boot of his Black Audi and releasing it.
Sheffield Magistrates Court heard Fowler, from Sheffield, had driven to the place of worship on four occasions between May and June and filmed himself performing the criminal act.
During those visits Fowler had also been shouting racist insults at people entering the building.
Officers from South Yorkshire police subsequently charged Fowler with four counts of racially aggravated harassment, which he pleaded guilty to at an earlier hearing at the same court on June 27.
Police were notified of his offences after they were called to the mosque following reports of a man allegedly stopping at the side of the road and releasing three rats from the boot of a vehicle.
At the time he was remanded to custody ahead of his sentencing hearing.
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