A Nigerian national has been sentenced to a prison term for the prolonged storage of human faeces in containers outside his residential property in south-east London, a case that has drawn attention to the limits of community tolerance and environmental health enforcement.
John Kolawole, 54, was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court on charges of contravening the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The court heard that between March 2019 and November 2021, Kolawole accumulated dozens of plastic tubs containing faecal matter on the front garden of his council flat in Thamesmead, creating a public nuisance.
Local authority environmental health officers first received complaints in 2019. On inspection, they discovered the waste piled in plain view, some containers without lids, attracting flies and rodents. Despite multiple warnings and a formal abatement notice, Kolawole refused to remove the material. He argued that the faeces were part of a traditional spiritual practice, a claim he later repeated in court.
Prosecutors described the scene as a “health hazard of significant proportion”, noting that the smell permeated neighbouring properties and posed a risk of disease transmission. The local council incurred costs of over £30,000 for the eventual removal and disposal of the waste.
Judge Sarah Plummer, sentencing, said the defendant’s actions showed “a deliberate and sustained disregard for the safety and wellbeing of the community”. She imposed a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment, reduced to 12 months for a guilty plea, plus an additional 12 months on licence.
The case has prompted discussion among public health experts about the intersection of cultural practices and statutory obligations in a multicultural society. Dr Catherine Ogden, a specialist in environmental health regulation at the University of Manchester, noted that while British law accommodates religious and customary rights, it does not permit actions that endanger public health. “The threshold is harm,” she said. “When an activity creates a demonstrable risk to others, the law intervenes.”
Kolawole’s defence team had argued that the faeces were to be used in rituals and that he had intended to relocate them to Nigeria. The court rejected this as unsubstantiated and noted the prolonged nature of the storage demonstrated a pattern of non-compliance.
London’s environmental health services have seen an increase in cases involving the hoarding of biological waste, though such instances remain rare. The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health has called for clearer guidance on dealing with cultural claims in enforcement, while stressing that public protection remains paramount.
A spokesperson for the Royal Borough of Greenwich, where the offence occurred, said: “We welcome the sentence. This case was an extreme example of behaviour that made life intolerable for neighbours. We will always take robust action where there is a serious risk to health.”
Kolawole will serve his sentence at HMP Belmarsh.
