Excerpt:
Police said they had no prior knowledge of a gang's plot to slash the face of an East End teacher because he was holding lessons in religion that Muslim girls attended.
Gary Smith, head of religious education at Central Foundation Girls' School in Bow, was pounced on by four thugs armed with a knife, an iron rod and a block of cement in Mile End on July 12 last year.
Detectives surveilling the men, Akmol Hussein, 26, Sheikh Rashid, 27, Azad Hussain, 25, and Simon Alam, 19, had gathered evidence that showed a religious motive for the attack.