Muslim family in shock after pig’s head left at Stockport home

A Muslim family spoke of feeling “degraded” and “unwelcome” after a pig’s head was left on their gate by two masked men at night.

Camran Butt, 41, was leaving the family home in Stockport, Greater Manchester, with his two children on the morning of 9 January when they spotted what they initially thought was a dead animal on the driveway where it had fallen from the gate.

In a hurry to get his children to school, he said he did not realise what had happened until he got a “hysterical” phone call from his wife.

Butt said the unknown culprits had gone to “extreme lengths” to leave the carcass at 01:30 GMT – and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is treating their behaviour as a hate crime.

Under Islamic law, pork is strictly prohibited.

Butt said he rushed back to his house, on Bruntwood Lane in Cheadle, and found his stunned wife speaking to a neighbour outside.

“She was shaking, like visibly shaking, you know her face was all snow white,” he said.

“I was like ‘what’s wrong, what’s happened?’ and she goes ‘oh there’s a pig’s head, there’s a pig’s head’.”

Butt said he assumed the item was a novelty mask, but soon realised it was real.

“A million things go through your mind. ‘How’s this got here? What’s going on?”, he said.

“You don’t even think it’s a hate crime at that point, you just think ‘what the bloody hell’s a pig’s head doing in my garden?'”

CCTV footage, shared with the BBC, revealed two men with their hoods raised, faces covered and wearing gloves, who place the head on a gatepost from where it dropped onto the driveway.

They then run away from the house.

Butt said the incident has left him and his family racking their brains to think why someone would have targeted them.

“You just think to yourself what sort of fight have I had that could lead someone to do something like this; so targeted, so professional,” he said.

“It’s not eggs on your car, or someone breaking into your car, someone’s really gone to extreme lengths.”

Butt, who runs a large care agency, said he grew up in Cheadle and had a strong relationship with his Jewish and Hindu neighbours, joining them in celebrating Diwali and Chanukah recently.

He said the reaction of his neighbours has been the “silver lining” of this unpleasant attack.

“It’s obviously you know the closest neighbours next door, they’re around straight away because you know them, you interact the most,” he said.

“But then you’ve got neighbours on different streets… They’re sending messages, knocking on the door, speaking to us saying, ‘look, this is not what Cheadle’s about’, a lot of them saying ‘look, you’re welcome here, it’s so awful’.

“Really, really supporting us, because when something like that happens to you, you don’t feel welcome.”

Butt praised the response of GMP, who dispatched officers quickly and put a marker on the address.

However he said he had to leave for a business trip the following day and was concerned enough to pay for private security to watch the house.

A police spokesperson said “multiple lines of enquiry” have been undertaken but so far no arrests have been made.

Ch Insp Lisa Devitt described the offence as an “appalling and deliberate act against a family home”.

“We are treating this incident as a hate crime and are doing everything we can to find those responsible,” she said.

“We appreciate this will have caused concern within the community and additional patrols were stepped up in the community following the report of this incident to provide reassurance.”