Wilmington Man Who Threatened To Burn Down Mosque Gets 5 Years

BOSTON, MA -- A U.S. District Court judge sentenced a Wilmington man to five years in federal prison and five years supervised Wednesday for threats he made on Facebook in 2015 against a Roxbury mosque. Patrick Keogan, 46, had pleaded guilty in February 2017 to making threats over Facebook to injure or intimidate another or destroy a building by means of fire, illegal possession of a firearm and possession of child pornography.

In addition to the threats of burning down the Mosque, was also charged with possession of child pornography and possession of 50 firearms as a convicted felon. He will also be required to register as a sex offender and surrender the guns.

Keogan posted references to the "mosque-burning Olympics" and shared images of a mosque in flames with a caption stating "Burn your local mosque" on the Facebook page of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center shortly after the November 2015 terrorist attack in Paris. He was indicted and arrested in July 2016.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).