Catholic priest who talked about bombing mosques walks free

A Catholic priest has admitted sending racist messages in fascist online chatrooms. Yet Father Mark Rowles was only sentenced to community service. Seems like ‘two tier’ justice isn’t quite what the far-right make it out to be…

Rowles’ story is truly bizarre. He styled himself ‘skinheadlad1488’ and pretended to be a 16 year old in a chatroom called Aryan Reich Killers. He discussed bombing mosques and shooting black people.

The BBC said:

“Rowles, of St John Lloyd Catholic church in Cardiff, admitted three counts of sending menacing or offensive messages using the Telegram app in May and June 2024”.

“His profile photo was of a young white man wearing a face covering, there was a German flag and the words “right hand path always””.

Rowles will be under a criminal behaviour order for three years; do 150 hours of community service and pay £199 in costs.

Catholic priest — Skinheadlad

In one chat Rowles talked about the ethnicity of Londoners and suggested “a few bullets to their brains would help”.

The prosecution said his “hostility based on religion and race”.

His defence lawyer said:

“Clearly this is a disturbing case. Throughout his life in the Catholic Church he has never been the subject of a complaint or disciplinary action.

Rowles had no previous convictions.

Nowhere is safe

Commenting on the trial, anti-racists activist Shabs said:

“ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER CASE OF THE OLD DOUBLE STANDARDS, WALES.

“HERE WE HAVE ANOTHER CASE OF ANTI ISLAM, RACIAL HATRED THAT THE COURT SYSTEM THINKS IS APPARENTLY OK, BECAUSE HOW THE HELL HAS THIS MAN NOT BEEN SENTENCED????

“I AM SEEING MY FRIENDS AND COMRADES BEING ARRESTED FOR SPEAKING UP AGAINST INJUSTICES AND A FOREIGN ENTITY, YET ANOTHER WHITE MAN CAN THREATEN TO UNALIVE MUSLIMS AND IS GIVEN A SLAP ONT WRISTS!”.

X user Keshuru said the mild sentence was a sign of institutional bias:

Catholic priest, Father Mark Rowles, posed online as “skinheadlad1488,” talked about bombing mosques & shooting Black people…He got a 12-month community order.

Like I said earlier this week, we live in a country where white people no longer commit crimes pic.twitter.com/OwxyrVpdPd

— Esheru (@EsheruKwaku) October 31, 2025

While Raj Unsworth said if Rowles had mentioned synagogues instead of mosques, he’d have seen the inside of a jail cell:

“admitted discussing bombing mosques and shooting black people in the head in neo-Nazi online chatrooms” 😱😱

Synagogues & Jews? He would have faced prison

Cardiff Catholic priest Mark Rowles sentenced for sending racist neo-Nazi messages – BBC News https://t.co/1htx8fmhfw

— Raj Unsworth #Equity #Antiracist #Humanitarian (@rrunsworth) October 31, 2025

The far-right’s favourite trope is that there is a ‘two-tier’ justice system. In their fantasy world it always goes harder on white people than anyone else. But as ‘skinheadlad’ Father Mark Rowles has just discovered, precisely the opposite is true.

Featured image via BBC/Screenshot