Author Archives: virginiagolden

James Malcolm also painted a Star of David hanging from a gallows on an MSP’s office and knocked over war graves during his campaign of hate.

A vandal scrawled anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi symbols on an MSPs office window.

James Malcom, 18, used red paint to write the symbols, including a Star of David being hung on gallows, at Rona MacKay’s Kirkintolloch office.

He then caused £14,000 of damage to 27 headstones at a cemetery with a Nazi swastika symbol scribbled on broken glass found at one of them.

During his two-month crime spree, Malcolm yelled “Heil Hitler” at a terrified 16-year-old in a park.

He vandalised Lenzie Moss Nature Reserve and Waverly and Luggie Park in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, and used his blood to write offensive slogans on the wall of a police cell.

James Malcolm scrawled anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi symbols on an MSPs office window

Malcolm pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to four charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, a charge of maliciously damaging headstones and writing offensive slogans on a cell between June 1 and August 9, this year.

The court heard a member of the public spotted graffiti on a glass notice board at Lenzie Moss Nature Reserve on July 17.

He saw “Glory to marches and enemies to the point of no return” in blue paint, along with Nazi slogans and symbols as well as “James M”, scratched on to a sign among the post.

Procurator fiscal depute Mark Allan said the man was “offended and horrified” and took a picture then reported it to the police.

On July 23, Malcolm graffitied in red paint on a bridge above the main path leading to Luggie Park.

Days later a dog-walker saw “Adolf Hitler”, “All N*****s must hang” and “white power” among other phrases.

Mr Allan said: “She was offended and appalled by what she saw, in particular a picture of the Star too David on a hangman’s noose, which reminded her of a personal tragic event.”

She contacted the police who took a note of the full text on the bridge.

The cost of the damage was £500 for the removal of the graffiti.

On July 24, Malcolm was with a group of younger teenagers who ran off when he began to vandalise the window at Miss MacKay’s office with a red paint marker.

Mr Allan said the writing again included anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi symbols.

The following day an employee “felt uncomfortable about the content” of the vandalism and contacted the police.

Investigations lead to Malcolm and officers went to his house to speak to him.

The court heard when they went into his home they saw the walls were covered with anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans including “death to all jews” and “death to all non whites”.

He was taken to London Road police office to be interviewed.

Mr Allan added: “He initially made no comment, however when being asked about the phrases on the bridge he admitted he was responsible and when shown photographs he began to explain the correct phrases, symbols and icons and provided meaning and context.

“He also stated that he was looking to shock people with his messages so that they would wake up and see the truth.

“He didn’t see anything wrong with what he had done however stated that he was getting punished because it was the establishment’s rules.”

Malcolm said he didn’t intend to hurt anybody and only want get his messages out.

When he was held in custody to attend at court, he smeared swastikas and other symbols on the walls of his cell with his own blood.

Having been bailed at court, Malcolm shouted Nazi phrases at a 16-year-old at Waverly Park and threatened him with a Buckfast bottle.

He left the park after he was told by two passers-by that they had contacted the police.

Mr Allan said that on August 9, police were given information that Malcolm had damaged and pushed over grave stones at Old Aisle Cemetery in Kirkintilloch.

The court heard there are 38 graves of Commonwealth service personnel from the first and second World Wars in the graveyard and this is signposted.

When police arrived they saw several headstones had been pushed over and that the damage appeared fresh with the soil newly turned over.

Mr Allan continued: “A total of 27 headstones within different sections of the cemetery had been damaged.

“Some had been pushed over and some had been broken in two. Two of the headstones appeared to have had glass bottles smashed off them.

“At one of the headstones they found a small piece of broken glass with writing which included a Nazi swastika and Germanic runes.

The court was told the damage is £14,000 although that may go up as some headstones will need more work than others.

When he was later arrested Malcolm told police “I know I shouldn’t have done it, I don’t know why.”

Sheriff Alan MacKenzie deferred sentence until a later date and Malcolm was remanded.

Daily Record

Bristol prison officer smuggled £20K of drugs for inmates at time prisoner overdosed

By virginiagolden

December 4, 2018

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Kevin Crehan arrived just as a corrupt prison officer was busted

Kevin Crehan died at HMP Bristol in Horfield

HMP Bristol was awash with illegal drugs and phones when an inmate who died of an overdose was first transferred there – because a corrupt prison officer had been smuggling them in, an inquest has heard.

The scale of the drugs problem at the Horfield prison was laid bare at the inquest into the death of Kevin Crehan – by the very person in charge of security at the jail.

Crehan, 35, died in late December 2016, just weeks after being transferred to the Horfield jail.

The first day of a two-week inquest into his death heard he died of a drugs overdose thanks to a cocktail of five prescription drugs, particularly methadone and diazepam.

An inquest jury heard he had been ‘doing well’ in his efforts to get off drugs during the first months of his sentence, served at Guy’s Marsh Prison in Dorset.

The inquest was told he was transferred to Bristol Prison on the last day of November 2016.

Giving evidence to his inquest was Joanne Hadden, the head of security at HMP Bristol, and she was cross-examined by Mikhael Puar, representing the Crehan family.

He asked her exactly how illegal or illicit drugs found their way into the prison.

She described numerous various ways in which drugs enter the cells, and said that at the end of November 2016, just days before Crehan arrived, a prison officer had been discovered smuggling around £20,000 worth of drugs and phones into the prison to sell to inmates.

That prison officer was subsequently sent to prison themselves, for two and a half years.

It meant that, at around the time Crehan arrived, prisoners had little trouble getting their hands on illegal drugs.

Ms Hadden said that this corrupt route had meant an end to the long-standing practice of friends and family throwing illegal drugs over the walls of the prison, a strategy that had returned in the months after that corrupt officer’s supply route was busted.

But she said that there had been other suspicious officers or staff at the prison. She spoke of other people whose work brings them into the prison, about whom there had been intelligence or suspicion.

“There have been members of staff who don’t work within the prison staff themselves who, while they haven’t been arrested, have left or stopped working there and there’s intelligence that there’s a route that has ended,” she explained.

Mr Puar asked if there was a particular problem at Bristol Prison of staff ‘turning a blind eye’ to prisoners accessing or taking drugs.

“You would like to think not but I’m not naive,” said Ms Hadden. “It’s not large scale though.”

It wasn’t just corrupt staff or civilians who brought drugs in.

“Prisoners can be paid thousands of pounds to return very quickly when they are released on licence, so that they can keep the drugs coming in on the inside,” she said.

“They will be released on licence but then make sure they do something which will mean they are arrested and returned to prison, but will have drugs hidden on them.

“Other routes into the prison are from people throwing them over the wall. In those packages will will be phones and drugs,” she added.

Ms Hadden said that visitors to the prison will bring drugs and phones in, and they have increasingly found that drugs like spice will be secreted within paper sent as letters.

“We found this was happening so acted to stop it. Now instead they will send drugs in legal letters to prisoners, which we are not allowed to open, so we have to check with the individual solicitors’ office to check they actually did send this letter or not

“We’ll close down a route and a new route will open up. It’s a continuing problem we have to face.”

The problem of the tide of drugs entering HMP Horfield has been well-documented before, but has been put into the spotlight with the inquest into the death of Kevin Crehan, which began on Monday.

Toxicology tests revealed Crehan had five prescription drugs in his system: Methadone, diazepam, mirtazapin, gavepentin and pregabalin.

Only one of those – methadone – he was actually prescribed, and even then, both the toxicologist and the Home Office pathologist told the inquest it was likely, on the balance of probabilities, the amount of methadone in his system indicated he’d taken extra on top of the 60mg a day he had been prescribed.

The inquest continues.
Bristol Post

Revealed: far-Right Ukip Brexit demo ‘organiser’ is a convicted kidnapper

By virginiagolden

December 2, 2018

Uncategorized

Gerard Batten, in the white shirt and blue tie, sitting to the left of Tommy Robinson, with Daniel Thomas to his right, at the Ukip demo planning meeting Credit: Gerard Batten/Twitter

A far right activist who claims to be one of the organisers of a Ukip rally and who attended a top level meeting with the party’s leader Gerard Batten has a conviction for attempted kidnap, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Daniel Thomas, 29, has been instrumental in promoting “The Brexit Betrayal” march, a London demonstration in which the newly appointed Ukip advisor ‘Tommy Robinson’ is expected to speak on December 9.

In a picture tweeted by Gerard Batten on Friday, Thomas is photographed sat next to Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League, alongside the party leader.

Mr Batten tweeted: “Spent the afternoon planning Brexit Betrayal – Brexit Must Mean Exit March & Rally,” adding that the event was a “leaver family day out”.

It can be revealed Thomas, a father of four, was jailed two years ago for the attempted armed kidnapping of a man in Hampshire.

Daniel Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, with Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, at a demonstration Credit: Daniel Thomas/Facebook

Last night, Ukip insisted Thomas was there purely as a Robinson’s bodyguard, despite the photograph showing him sat at the conference table with note paper and having a proven record in organising political rallies.

The revelations could prove to be politically damaging because Ukip’s National Executive Committee is under pressure from former leader Nigel Farage to hold a vote of no confidence in Mr Batten’s leadership when it meets in London.

Last week, Mr Farage wrote a letter to the 15-strong NEC urging it to pass a vote of no confidence in Mr Batten’s leadership over the way he had courted Robinson and pursued an anti-Muslim agenda.

Mr Farage told the Sunday Telegraph: “I am absolutely disgusted with the whole thing. I have been warning repeatedly for the past few months that this was a disastrous course of action. And we are now pretty much at the end game.”

Mr Batten insisted he “was not aware” of Thomas’s conviction and asked to be sent details.

A police mugshot of Daniel Thomas after his arrest for attempted kidnapping

In July 2016, a judge condemned Thomas and two other men for an “extraordinarily frightening incident” matched only by its “stupidity” in which they armed themselves with knives and targeted Graham Page at his home on Hayling Island.

Mr Page told Portsmouth Crown Court that Thomas, along with Darren Anscombe, 38, and Leo Smith, 34, burst into the house shouting “you’re coming with us”.

He claimed they wrongly accused him of stealing £10,000 of drugs from them and tried to drag him away.

Mr Page resisted and the men fled, shouting “we’ll be back”. Upon arrest Thomas, from Hampshire, admitted the offence. He was jailed for two years. The two others received 30 month sentences.

Danny Tommo takes a selfie at one of the far right demonstrations he organised

After his release from prison last year, Thomas adopted the pseudonym Danny Tommo and organised marches throughout the country calling for Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to be freed from a sentence for contempt of court.

Thomas became an expert at dealing with local authorities and police to set up protests, where he also gave speeches. He is now among the inner circle of Robinson’s associates and this year organised two rallies outside the Old Bailey when Robinson was appearing there.

Last week, he posted a video to his thousands of followers on Facebook promoting the Ukip march as “the beginning of the political revolution”, adding “we are going to be working together”.

He regularly visits London’s Speakers’ Corner where he films himself arguing with Muslims, and was once handcuffed and detained by police before being released.

Daniel Thomas is led away by police from Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park, London

On Saturday night, Thomas said the attempted kidnapping was committed because he “got involved with some stupid people” after experiencing financial difficulty.

“Everyone deserves a second chance,” he said. “I came out of prison and I have turned my life around.

“I now go to church every Sunday and pray for forgiveness. Hopefully I will better myself over the years and this incident will be forgotten.”

He was privately educated and has worked as a bricklayer, sales and marketing manager and run a web design company. However, he has now stopped working to “dedicate everything to the cause.”

Daniel Thomas speaks at the demonstration he organised outside the Old Bailey while Tommy Robinson appears at a hearing Credit: Rmv/Zuma Press / eyevine

Thomas, a former tank driver with the King’s Royal Hussars, from which he was medically discharged before seeing active service, added: “What we are trying to do with Ukip is the future.”

A Ukip spokesman said Thomas was at Friday’s meeting “in the capacity of Mr Robinson’s personal security”.

He added: “Mr Thomas is not part of Ukip’s planning team. He has served his sentence and has returned to the world of work just as Lords Archer and Ahmed have returned to the House of Lords after serving serious criminal convictions.”

Daily Telegraph

Drunk chanted ‘EDL, EDL’ at Asian police officer during pub bonfire party

By virginiagolden

November 23, 2018

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Matthew Pond carried out the racist abuse at the pub his own mother runs in Ilkeston

Mathew pond pictured leaving court in Derby (Image: Derby Telegraph)

A drunk man racially-abused a police officer who had been called to a bonfire party at the defendant’s own mother’s Derbyshire pub.

A court heard how Matthew Pond asked the Asian officer “Have you been to prayers, today?” before repeatedly chanting “EDL, EDL” at him in reference to the far-right political group the English Defence League.

Emma Heath-Tilford, prosecuting, said the offence took place at The Bridge Inn, in Bridge Street, Cotmanhay, on November 5.

She said officers were asked to attend to Pond who was “being held down on the floor” by other pub goers due to his “aggressive behaviour”.

‘Clearly intoxicated’

Miss Heath-Tilford said: “He was outside by the bonfire, clearly intoxicated, shouting and swearing.

“Officers tried to talk to him to find out what was happening and he continued to shout and swear so they tried to put handcuffs on him.

“He was resisting them as they arrested him for being drunk and disorderly he turned to PC Atwal and asked him ‘What time did you go to prayers today?’

“Then, while they were waiting for transportation (to take the defendant into custody) he was repeatedly shouting ‘EDL, EDL’ which the officer took as a reference to the English Defence League.”

‘Indian ethnicity’

Miss Heath-Tilford told Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court that PC Atwal is of Indian ethnicity and took what Pond was saying to him as “racial abuse”.

In a victim impact statement, which was read to the court, the officer said: “The language that was used towards me was horrific.

“I should not have to deal with this kind of abuse while on duty as a police officer when all I am trying to do is my job,”

Pond, 32, of Cotmanhay Road, Ilkeston, was arrested, taken into custody and the following day, when he was shown the police’s body camera footage of the incident, said he felt “embarrassed” about his behaviour outside the pub.

‘Extremely embarrassed’

He pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly and to using racially-aggravated abusive, insulting or threatening words or behaviour.

Colleen Webb, for Pond, said her client had written a letter to the court expressing his apologies to PC Atwal about what he said to him.

She said: “He is extremely remorseful and embarrassed.

“That evening he had been at a bonfire event at his mum’s pub and had too much to drink.

“Clearly something triggered his behaviour but he has little recollection of the rest of the evening.

“Since the incident he has had to build bridges with his mother because she owns the Bridge Inn and he has also received some unfortunate remarks (about the incident) on Facebook.”

Magistrates handed Pond a 12-month community order, with 100 hours’ unpaid work.

They also ordered him to pay £100 compensation to PC Atwal, £85 prosecution costs and an £85 victim surcharge.
Derby Telegraph

Redruth taxi driver racially abused and attacked after snowball fight

By virginiagolden

November 22, 2018

Uncategorized

Kane Christopher Powell punched and racially abused Mohammed Shah in an attack described by a judge as ‘despicable’

A drunken 20-year-old man racially abused and attacked a taxi driver who had been enjoying a snowball fight.

The attack happened back in March and Kane Christopher Powell at first pretended he was joining in the wintry fun.

But a court heard Powell, of Higher Fore Street, Reduth, became violent and – backed by another man – attacked the taxi driver and called him a ‘paki’.

The two attackers then chased him down the street and tried to force their way into a house where the taxi driver had sought shelter. They smashed the front door while those inside tried to hold it closed.

Powell appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence having previously pleaded guilty to common assault and racially aggravated threatening behaviour against Mohammed Shah and criminal damage to a door.

Prosecutor Philip Lee said: “It was late at night on March 1. It had been snowing. Mr Shah is a taxi driver and during a break in the evening, he and other drivers were throwing snow at each other.

“This defendant approached, initially seeming to join in and feigning joviality. ‘I am only joking,’ he said but soon became aggressive. He punched Mr Shah three times in the chest and then another person became involved, a Mr Webb, the absent co-defendant in this case who is wanted on a warrant.”

He said Mr Shah pushed Powell away and started to walk away. He added: “This defendant ran up behind him and punched him once to the face, causing him to fall to the ground with a cut to his lip.”

Mr Shah retreated to seek help from an Indian restaurant in Higher Fore Street but was followed by Powell and Webb.

Mr Lee said Powell was heard shouting ‘pakis’ and said: “Mr Powell accused Mr Shah of doing something sexual with his sister. There is no substance to that allegation, the crown says.”

He said Mr Shah was taken inside the house of the restaurant manager, Sultan Ahmed, but Powell and Webb began shouting and kicking forcibly at the door.

“At one point they forced the door open while the others behind where pinning the door closed. A further assault by the other man took place before both walked away,” he said.

He said Powell was later arrested and said to police: “Yeah, I banged him out, so what?”

The court heard from the Probation Service that Powell was drunk at the time and admitted he was suffering from an alcohol problem. He said that since March he had taken steps to address this problem.

Powell had moved to Cornwall from London at the age of 15, when his mother, who has alcohol issues, refused to pay for his return train ticket. The court heard he had been to school and college and now worked a carer for an autistic friend who he had met while they were both homeless on the streets.

Hollie Gilbery, representing Powell, said he had only a patchy memory of the evening, adding: “He cannot recall using the language described and he was quite shocked at using that language, but does not seek to deny the evidence of the police officers.”

She added that Powell himself had been the victim of a serious assault involving the use of baseball bats the previous summer.

Addressing Powell, Judge Simon Carr said: “As I hope you’ve learned and are prepared to accept, your behaviour that night was despicable. You had been drinking heavily with a group of young men who had also been drinking.”

He said they targeted Mr Shah, adding: “For reasons, in truth only you will be able to understand, you became verbally abusive and violent, assaulting him and punching him a number of times.”

He said Mr Shah and the other men sheltering in the house must have been terrified to have them battering down the door.

Judge Carr said it was unacceptable that the prosecution had taken so long for the case to come to court. He warned that if he had been sentencing Powell sooner, he would have sent him to prison. However, he acknowledged that Powell had taken positive steps since March to turn his life around.

Powell was handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was also made the subject of a curfew at home between 7pm and 7am for six months and must do 15 days’ work with the Probation Service on a range of programmes looking at a range of issues such as behaviour, impact on victims and substance misuse.

Powell was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to Mr Shah.

Cornwall Live

Redruth man beat Pakistani victim and shouted racial abuse

By virginiagolden

November 22, 2018

Uncategorized

Kane Powell admitted assaulting his victim and shouting racial abuse

A Redruth man has admitted assaulting a victim of Pakistani origin and behaving in a threatening and racially aggravated manner.

Kane Powell, of Higher Fore Street, appeared at Truro Crown Court on Friday (November 16) for a plea hearing.

Powell, 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault, and another of causing racially aggravated fear/provocation of violence. He also admitted to being in possession of a lock knife in a public place.

The court heard that Powell assaulted his victim, Mohammed Shah, in Redruth on March 1.

Philip Lee, for the prosecution, told the court that the racially aggravated element of the offence came as a result of Powell approaching the door of a residential property belonging to Sultan Ahmed and repeatedly banging and kicking the door, while shouting racial abuse.

Judge James Townsend told Powell that he will be sentenced at Truro Crown Court on Tuesday (November 20).

Judge Townsend asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the probation service to enable Tuesday’s sitting judge to understand the background behind Powell’s crimes.

In the meantime Powell was granted unconditional bail.

Cornwall Live

Shopkeeper kicked in the face in racist attack at his store

By virginiagolden

November 22, 2018

Uncategorized

A MUSSELBURGH shopkeeper was kicked in the face and repeatedly punched in a racist attack at his store.

Craig Douglas launched the savage attack on Ilhan Ahmedov outside the man’s newsagents store on the town’s Eskview Terrace earlier this year.

Douglas appeared at the small family-run shop with another man after consuming alcohol and taking Valium and began hurling racist abuse at Mr Ahmedov.

Douglas, 24, asked the shopkeeper for alcohol but when told the shop did not have a licence he shouted racist slurs.

He was heard shouting: “We are Scottish – who are you?” at the stunned shop owner.

Both men were then asked to leave the premises and Mr Ahmedov pressed the shop’s panic alarm before managing to usher both men from the store.

But once outside, Douglas repeatedly punched the shop owner as he was “cowering in the doorway” of the shop.

Mr Ahmedov was viciously kicked to the face before being punched again and it took a passing motorist to pull over and intervene for the attack to stop.

Mr Ahmedov was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary following the attack, where it was found he had suffered a broken cheekbone and nose, as well as cuts and bruises to his face.

Both men had run from the scene and police were called in to search for them.

Douglas was then apprehended and he pleaded guilty to the attack when he appeared in the dock from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Thursday.

The court was told the attack took place at about 8pm on August 10 and that Douglas, a labourer with a local building firm, had taken an excess of alcohol and Valium beforehand.

Solicitor Colm Dempsey, defending, said his client suffered from “substance abuse” and was due to become a father for the first time in February.

Mr Dempsey said that Douglas’s partner had “felt very let down” by his violent actions but that he had “accepted full responsibility” for the offence, despite having “no real recollection of events”.

The solicitor also informed the court that Douglas had been on a supervised release order at the time of the attack from a previous incident.

Sheriff Nigel Ross told Douglas: “We have been here before. There is no alternative to custody as this was a violent assault on a shopkeeper who was going about his business.”

Sheriff Ross jailed Douglas for 18 months.

Douglas pleaded guilty to assaulting Ilhan Ahmedov by repeatedly punching him on the head and body and to kicking him to the head, all to his severe injury, at Monktonhall Newsagents, Eskview Terrace, Musselburgh, on August 10.

East Lothian Courier

Racist drunk smashed windows with hammer at Leeds bar

By virginiagolden

November 22, 2018

Uncategorized

A THUG hurled racist abuse at staff at a bar in Leeds before using a hammer to smash windows at the premises.

John Lock caused more than £1,000 worth of damage during the incident at the Dahlak entertainment centre on Stoney Rock Lane, Burmantofts.

Leeds Crown Court heard Lock, 28, went into the premises, formerly the Sportsman pub, on March 29 this year but staff refused to serve him as he had previously been barred.

Andrew Horton, prosecuting, said Lock then took out a bottle of whisky which he had brought with him and began drinking from it.

Lock became aggressive and refused to leave.

The staff member then fetched his boss who ejected Lock from the premises.

Lock shouted racial abuse at the men and said: “You will see me again.”

He returned carrying a hammer and used it to smash windows.

The prosecutor said “glass was flying everywhere” and some of it hit a member of staff in the face.

Children witnessed the incident as they made their way home from a nearby primary school

Police arrested Lock at his home later that day and he was in possession of two hammers and a half-empty bottle of whisky.

The court heard Lock breached a restraining order by contacting his partner on Facebook on May 30.

He also assaulted a police officer who went to his home on October 5 this year.

The court heard officers went to his home and saw Lock’s feet sticking out of a cupboard.

He was told to come out but ran into one of the officers as he tried to get away from them.

The officer fell down some stairs.

Lock, of Shakespeare Lawn, Burmantofts, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated criminal damage, racially aggravated threatening behaviour, breaching a restraining order and assaulting a police constable in the execution of his duty.

Ian Cook, mitigating, said Lock was sorry for the offences and was “disappointed” with himself for shouting racial abuse.

Mr Cook added: “He does not consider himself to be a racist man. He said racist things in the heat of the moment while clearly in drink.”

Lock was jailed for eight months.
Yorkshire Evening Post

Sleeping prisoner has boiling water poured in eye during racist attack

By virginiagolden

November 22, 2018

Uncategorized

John Reilly called Esmael Elmarghani a “Muslim b*****d” when he wasn’t even a Muslim

John Reilly, 41, of no fixed address, admitted racially aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm

A prisoner poured boiling water in a sleeping inmate’s eye at HMP Altcourse during a sickening racist attack.

Convicted robber John Reilly demanded a turn on a pool table when Esmael Elmarghani was playing a game.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Elmarghani, 38, originally from Libya, didn’t want any trouble and said ‘that’s fine”.

To ensure there were no hard feelings, he offered Reilly a fist bump, which the 41-year-old reciprocated.

But when he went back to his cell and fell asleep, Reilly collected boiling water from a tea urn in a beaker.

The cowardly thug then crept up to defenceless Elmarghani and emptied its contents onto his left eye.

He woke in immense pain and Reilly warned: “Don’t go out you Muslim b*****d – if you go out I will kill you.”

Derek Jones, prosecuting, said Elmarghani – who is not actually Muslim – was terrified but alerted prison guards.

He had been in the jail since early last year and had “kept himself to himself” before the June 17, 2017 incident.

CCTV footage captured Reilly hiding the beaker, going in Elmarghani’s cell, onto the landing, then back in the cell to attack.

Mr Jones said the victim was taken to Whiston hospital, where he received treatment including ointment for three days.

Reilly, of no fixed address, appearing via video link from HMP Birmingham, admitted racially aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm.

Judge Gary Woodhall questioned why he was not charged with causing grievous bodily harm, which Mr Jones said surprised him.

Elmarghani revealed he no longer had any scarring on his face, but is receiving treatment for his left eye from ophthalmologists.

The victim said he had suffered depression since the incident and was nervous of people coming close to him.

He said he was afraid of people holding bottles of water and found going out in public and getting a new job difficult.

Because of the damage to his skin, he said he avoided sunlight or direct heat and no longer felt able to work as a chef.

Mr Jones said: “He describes having partial vision and his ongoing course of treatment involves having injections to his left eyeball.

“He is still unsure if the damage to the eye will be permanent or not.”

Reilly, who refused to be interviewed when police attended prison, has 42 previous convictions for 142 offences, dating back to 1992.

They include wounding, assaults, drugs, possession of weapons, affrays and a robbery he was jailed for five years over in 1998.

He was locked up for five years, four months with an extended two years, eight months on licence in September 2015 for robbery.

And just nine days after this attack, he assaulted a prison guard by punching him in the face and was convicted of battery.

Charles Lander, defending, said his client – who was due for release next March – was “embarrassed and ashamed”.

He said: “The defendant says after a game of pool his head was stewing, he was going to get a coffee and for some reason he just went into that room and acted as he did.”

Mr Lander said Reilly had anger management issues and was possibly schizophrenic but at the time was not receiving his medication.

He said he was embarrassed to now have a conviction for racism and never had any problems before with Muslims or ethnic minorities.

Judge Woodhall said Reilly “muscled in” on the game of pool and Elmarghani didn’t argue back, but then suffered a “very painful” injury.

He said: “It fact Mr Elmarghani is not a Muslim but you clearly believed he was and that was the motivation, at least in part, for this unprovoked attack.”

The judge handed Reilly two years and eight months in prison – consecutive to his existing sentence – meaning he will not be released before July 2020.
Liverpool Echo

Drunken racists beat up Italian barman because they thought he was Muslim

By virginiagolden

November 21, 2018

Uncategorized

‘They wanted to beat me up … All three of them hit me, kicks and punches, and when I was on the floor there were more kicks and punches’, Dario Antonioni tells court

A trio of drunken racists attacked an Italian barman and told him to “go back to your own country” because they incorrectly assumed he was Muslim, a court has heard.

Shouting “f***ing Muslim” and “Muslim go home” Joshua O’Leary, 23, and Alfred Young, 19, set upon Dario Antonioni in the in Surrey Quays area of east London on 10 June.

He told Inner London crown court that he that he had a beard at the time.

“Due to your prejudice and ignorance and because he had a small beard you all thought he was a Muslim and shouted abuse at him,” Judge Benedict Kelleher said as he sentenced the pair to community service and curfew instead of jail, the Evening Standard reported. “He put up a spirited defence to your completely unjustified attack late at night while under the influence of alcohol.”

He added that a third man, who was not caught, appeared to be the leader in the attack.

Mr Antonioni said he started walking quickly to get away and began to run when a bottle was thrown at him after he exited the Canada Water tube station.

He said: “The three of them surrounded me. I fell to the ground and I was struck everywhere by all three of them. I said: ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’ and I was speaking to them in Italian, but they increased the shouting. They wanted to beat me up … All three of them hit me, kicks and punches, and when I was on the floor there were more kicks and punches.”

He escaped with bruises on his elbows and knees and grazes on his face.

O’Leary denied taking part in the attack but was found guilty by a jury of religiously aggravated assault. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, 180 hours of community services, 20 days rehabilitation and a night-time curfew for 12 weeks.

Young admitted to the same charge and was handed a 12-month community order with 80 hours community service and a six-week night-time curfew.

They were both ordered to pay compensation to the victim.

The Independent

—Far-Right Criminals

Exposed

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Author Archives: virginiagolden

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