Archive

Tag Archives: jailed

Operation Prism nets gang who targeted businesses & mosques

By
August 3, 2017
Uncategorized

A gang who were involved in a major burglary conspiracy targeting businesses and mosques across Lancashire, have been jailed for a combined total of 22 years and six months.

Individual sentences ranged from 8 month suspended to 5 year’s imprisonment

Liam Cumberland, 27, of Lytham Rd, Blackburn; Sean Cumberland, 32, of Accrington Rd, Blackburn; Carl Cumberland, 31, of Thwaites Rd, Oswaldtwistle; Daniel Darani, 31, of Douglas Place, Blackburn; Darren Jeal, 42, of Eldon Rd, Blackburn; James O’Neil, 30, of South St, Darwen and Stuart Ainsworth, 40, of Shaw St, Blackburn all appeared at Preston Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.

Liam Cumberland was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment; Sean Cumberland was jailed for 5 years for the burglary conspiracy and drugs offences, Darren Jeal was sentenced to 4 years for the burglary conspiracy and drug offences; Darani was given 3 years 4 months for his part in the burglaries; Carl Cumberland was sentenced to 2 years 10 months for the burglaries. O’Neil was given an 8 month prison sentence suspended for 18 months. Ainsworth’s sentence was adjourned due to ill health.

A further two men were also sentenced for their part in the series of offences; 43-year-old Shaun Lever, of Windsor Rd, Knuzden, was given a 2 year supervision order after pleading guilty to handling stolen goods and 51-year-old Ronald Straeker, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to 2yrs 3 months after pleading guilty to one burglary, one thefts and an offence of handling stolen goods.

All nine were arrested after an investigation by Eastern Divisions Target Team following a large number of burglaries at mosques, businesses and restaurants in the Blackburn, Accrington, Great Harwood, Burnley, Colne and Preston areas. The gang, who targeted the premises between February 2011 and September 2012 stole cash and goods valued at approximately £88k.


“Secret Room”

During the investigation, which was codenamed Operation Prism, officers uncovered a make-shift “secret room” containing property which had been stolen from B&M Bargains. The room, which had been constructed by creating a partition within the back bedroom, was found after police raided Carl Cumberland’s house on Thwaites Road.

Detective Sergeant Tim McDermott said: “They deliberately targeted local businesses and mosques with each gang member having a different level of involvement in these pre meditated and calculated attacks.

“The effects of their crimes go far beyond the value of the property they stole. Some of the small businesses they stole from suffered and continue to suffer severe financial difficulties. One company was forced to make 21 employees redundant as a direct result of their losses.

“Not only did they steal charity money from the mosques but they took community documents which had been left for safe keeping. We should not underestimate the impact these thefts had on our local communities who were left feeling violated.

“They did their utmost to frustrate the police investigation at every turn and today’s sentences should demonstrate our determination to support local business and communities whilst targeting criminals and bringing them to justice.”

Blackburn Life

Story from July 2013.

Thug from Derby blamed Asian taxi driver for Manchester bomb then smashed up his cab

By
August 1, 2017
Uncategorized

Terence Poxon told police: ‘Yes, I am being racist’

A racist from Derby accused an Asian taxi driver of being responsible for the Manchester bomb then smashed up his cab with a wooden bat.

Terence Poxon said the victim had “firebombed kids,” and racially abused him – less than a week after the concert tragedy that claimed 25 lives.

The 58-year-old had dressed himself in a Union Jack t-shirt to deliberately parade around Normanton wearing it.

He told police he had armed himself with the weapon in case anyone challenged what he was wearing.

Terence Poxon, of Shelton Lock, threatened the taxi driver with a wooden baton (Image: Derbyshire police)

Terence Poxon, of Shelton Lock, threatened the taxi driver with a wooden baton (Image: Derbyshire police)

And Poxon also said he was pleased his actions had scared the taxi driver and told officers “yes, I am being racist” as he explained why he did what he did.

Steven Taylor, prosecuting at Derby Crown Court, said the incident took place at around 3.30pm on May 28.

He said Poxon had called a cab from his home in Acorn Close, Shelton Lock, which arrived minutes later.

Mr Taylor said: “The taxi driver asked him where he wanted to go and the defendant answered ‘Normanton’.

“When the driver asked him ‘where in Normanton?’ he suddenly became aggressive and said to the victim ‘you did the Manchester bomb’.

“He then pulled a wooden baton from his sleeve of his coat.”

Mr Taylor said the actions “frightened the cabbie” who managed to pull over in Chellaston Road and get out of the taxi.

He said Poxon also got out and used the weapon to smash three windows and cause dents to the car.

The offence was witnessed by people waiting at a bus stop who the taxi driver had gone over to for protection.

Mr Taylor said: “One of the witnesses said the defendant was wearing a Union Jack t-shirt and gesticulating in a confrontational manner shouting ‘Chelsea, Chelsea’ like a football chant.

“He then pointed at the taxi driver and shouted ‘guilty’.”

The police were called and arrived at the scene but Poxon had walked back to his home.

He was arrested and during the journey to the police station he swore at police officers, continued to racially abuse the taxi driver and said ‘he firebombed kids’.

Mr Taylor said: “He said to the officers ‘yes, I am being racist’ and he was not particularly apologetic about it.

“He told officers his intention was to go to Normanton Road wearing his Union Jack t-shirt and he had the baton in case anyone approached him about it.

“He said had anyone asked about his t-shirt he would have used the baton against them.

“He said he wanted the taxi driver to feel like the little kids did at the Manchester bomb.”

The Manchester Arena blast, on May 22, claimed the lives of 25 people and injured 250 more.

It was carried out by 22-year-old suicide bomber Salman Ramadan Abedi at the end of a concert by the American singer Ariana Grande.

Poxon pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence, racially-aggravated criminal damage and threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place.

Jailing him for 25 weeks, Judge Nirmal Shant QC said: “The victim was doing nothing more than carrying out his job in a law abiding way when you decided you were going to teach him a lesson for something he was not responsible for.

“Your behaviour was wholly unacceptable.”

Stuart Newsome, for Poxon, said his client had never been in trouble with the law before and had physical ailments including stomach problems, liver disease and chronic arthritis.

He said: “He is not a man of entrenched violence by any stretch of the imagination.

“He is remorseful and feels guilty and embarrassed about what he did.”
Derby Telegraph.

Ryan Fleming, 26, of Horsforth, gets three years’ jail for having sex with 14-year-old

By
July 29, 2017
Uncategorized

A MAN has been jailed for three years for having sex with a girl of 14 he met on Facebook.

Ryan Fleming, 26, was labelled “boastful and arrogant” by the sentencing judge at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

He was convicted by a jury after a week long trial of two offences of sexual activity with a child in 2013, and cleared of a further similar charge.

Fleming, of Featherbank Terrace, Horsforth, befriended the girl on Facebook.

They shared an interest in gigs and concerts and he told her he was 18, when he was in reality 22, prosecutor Sophie Drake said.

Fleming had sex with the girl twice at her home before she “dumped” him when she discovered his true age.

Fleming was on licence at the time after serving a 22-month jail sentence for falsely imprisoning a youth and sexually abusing him.

The court heard he and two other young men stripped their victim and shaved his head before Fleming walked him home, punching and kicking him on the way.

After the jury’s majority verdicts, Fleming’s solicitor advocate, Ray Singh, said the sexual activity was consensual and his client had been cleared of one of the offences.

Mr Singh accepted that an immediate prison sentence was inevitable. He said Fleming’s previous conviction arose out of a prank that went too far.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years banning Fleming from having any future contact with his victim, or any unsupervised contact with children under 16. He accepted that Fleming and the girl became Facebook friends because of their shared interest in music. She was “articulate, intelligent and mature.” But Fleming lied about his age and he knew the girl was 14 because her mother told him.

Judge Durham Hall said Fleming had fought the case very determindly. A guilty plea would have shown some degree of remorse.

He described his previous conviction as “troubling.”

Telegraph & Argus

Peter Scotter, who ripped woman’s niqab off in Sunderland, sent sick message to a child

By
July 19, 2017
Uncategorized

The 56-year-old harassed two adults and a child months before pulling a woman’s clothing off during a racist assault.

The vile thug who ripped a woman’s niqab off in a Sunderland shopping centre has pleaded guilty to sending a sick message to a child.

Peter Scotter, 56, admitted to three incidents of harassment in which he sent abuse to an under-16, a woman and a man.

Scotter, of Sunderland, was jailed for 15 months in July over a vicious assault in 2016, during which he tore a woman’s niqab off and screamed “you are in our country now, you stupid f****** Muslim”.

Appearing at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court via video link from HMP Holme House in Stockton, Scotter laughed and muttered “I’m paying nothing” when ordered to pay two of his victims compensation.

Outlining the case against Scotter, prosecutor Laura Lax said the relationship with the woman that had ended 11 years ago and a restraining order preventing him from contacting her was made soon after in 2008.

The woman, who is now in a new relationship, received gross Facebook messages in November 2016 calling her “an ugly woman” and demanding that she perform a sex act on him.

He then bragged about the fact that he had knocked her teeth out during an assault during their relationship.

Shortly after, Scotter began drip-feeding poison into the inbox of the woman’s husband, calling him a “child molester”, a “nonce” and a “beast”.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the woman said: “I suffered for years at his hands.

“I’m still scared to go into Sunderland city centre alone in case I bump into him because he knocked my teeth out.”

In a separate incident, Scotter cowardly abused a child via Facebook messages.

Ms Lax revealed that he had also made twisted comments of a sexual nature about the child to police, as well as making a violent threat.

Scotter’s defence solicitor, Anna Haq, said: “I don’t think I need to go into the offences, they speak for themselves.”

She said that Scotter had pleaded guilty to the charge in February 2017 but the case had been pushed back because of Scotter’s case at Newcastle Crown Court over the racist attack.

Delivering Scotter’s sentence, magistrate Joan Green said that it was a “particularly nasty offence” and handed him 6 weeks in prison – but the sentence will run concurrently with his current jail term, meaning he won’t serve a day extra behind bars.

Scotter muttered “I’m paying nothing” as magistrates discussed financial penalties and, when ordered to pay £100 to the child and the man, he laughed to himself.

He was also ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge and the court made restraining orders preventing him contacting the victims.

Newcastle Chronicle

Ruben White jailed after biting off part of man’s ear in Gillingham

By
July 11, 2017
Uncategorized

A convicted killer who savagely bit off part of a man’s ear when violence erupted in a Medway street has been jailed for eight years.

Under an extended sentence for public protection, Ruben White, who has a previous conviction for manslaughter, will have to serve two thirds of the sentence before being considered for release.

The 28-year-old, of no fixed address, will be on licence for a further three years.

He was convicted in May with Liam Hudson, 28, of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Hudson, of Station Road, Rainham, was jailed for eight years. His girlfriend, Amelia Waters, 27, of the same address, was cleared of the charge but convicted of the lesser offence of unlawful wounding and sentenced to 21 months.

All three were given 21 months concurrent for affray. Hudson was acquitted of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

White left his victim, Ian Hayward, in need of reconstructive surgery following the attack in a residential street. The piece of ear he gnawed off was never found.

Judge Philip Statman said after the verdicts: “This is a grave offence and unfortunately it involves violence in the street with premeditation and use of a weapon, namely teeth.

“We have a very ugly injury which has occurred.”

Maidstone Crown Court heard the violence happened on November 2 last year following bad feeling toward’s Mr Hayward’s family over a previous road rage incident.

His son Sam had been with his wife Charlotte South and their six-month-old child in their Mitsubishi Shogun driving along Richmond Road in Gillingham.

Prosecutor Peter Alcock said they passed Hudson standing by an Audi A3 driven by Waters. They followed the Shogun.

Samuel phoned his father, who was working at a house nearby, to tell him about the situation.

When Miss South stopped at traffic lights, Waters pulled alongside and shouted: “Don’t smile —— —-, I will bite your —— nose off.”

Miss South replied that they had a baby in the car and she should back off.

She then drove to Cavendish Avenue where Ian Hayward was renovating a house. She went into the house with the baby.

The car containing Waters, Hudson and White stopped in the middle of the road and all three got out.

They approached Ian and Samuel Hayward and made a group attack on them with bleach being sprayed.

Ian Hayward told of being held face down over a car bonnet when he heard a crunching sound.

“I initially felt very little pain but I just heard like a crunching noise, like somebody eating cornflakes if you like,” he said.

White, formerly of Kingswood Road, Gillingham, was alleged to have held up a piece of Mr Hayward’s right ear saying: ‘I have got a bit of your ——- ear.’

But Judge Statman said he was not convinced that White “held it up as a trophy”.

White was jailed for three-and-a-half years in January 2011 for the single punch manslaughter of Lithuanian Saulius Klevinskas, 35, in Gillingham.

Judge Statman said the violence was in order to take revenge on the Hayward family.

“The three of you acted in concert to bring an ugly act of violence to Cavendish Avenue,” he said.

“Each of you were responsible for your own individual acts, as well as acting in concert one with the other.”

Hudson’s record, he said, was a classic one of a “tearaway youth” and then petty offending and anti-social behaviour.

The judge told Waters he could not be sure she had a weapon when she left the car she and Hudson were in.

“That being said, you bear responsibility in many respects that this happened in the first place,” he continued. “You don’t cover yourself in glory in that particular regard.

“I bear in mind the impact on your character this conviction has and the press reporting and the ignominy that has arisen from there.”

White was regarded as a model prisoner and had been given a privileged job, but his record was somewhat different to Hudson and Waters.

“Your victim has lost part of his ear,” he said. “He sustained psychological harm as well. One cannot say with any certainty whether his ear can be totally repaired.

“There is here a significant degree of premeditation. There is use of a weapon – in this case part of your body Mr White – your teeth – to behave in the manner you did.

“Further more, your have got bleach with you. It was not something that was simply left out with the rubbish for you to come by.”

He told all three: “I detect not a hint of remorse at any stage during the course of your trial. Now, I am told by your counsel you are genuinely sorry for what you have done.”

Judge Statman said he was satisfied White passed the “test” for dangerousness, as there had been an escalation in his level of violence.

Kent Online

Racist jailed for two city centre outbursts

By
July 10, 2017
Uncategorized
Racist Paul Thornhill

Racist Paul Thornhill


A RACIST has been jailed for two outbursts in the city centre that left a British citizen so terrified he was afraid to stay in York.

Joe Culley, prosecuting, said the first victim was walking to work along Micklegate when Paul Thornhill, 49, for no reason called “foreign bastard” and “you don’t belong here, go back to your own country”.

Afterwards, the victim told police he was looking for work elsewhere in the country. “I no longer want to visit or work in York. He made me feel so ill,” he said.

A few days later, Thornhill was abusive to a security guard at York Jobcentre when he went for an interview in connection with his benefits.

District judge Adrian Lower told him the first victim was a British citizen who had served his country. “He is a man who works for a living, a man who was causing you no difficulty whatsoever. Your behaviour towards him was absolutely disgraceful. He was simply minding his business walking to work.”

The victim had come to the UK in 2003 after being in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The district judge jailed Thornhill for 18 weeks and ordered him to pay £100 compensation to each victim.

Thornhill, of Wensley House, Bouthwaite Drive, Acomb, insulted the judge in a comment to a dock officer as he was taken to the court cells at York Magistrates Court.

He had denied being racist towards the first victim and on the day of his trial had been behaved so badly the district judge had ordered dock staff to remove him from the courtroom, heard the trial in his absence, and had jailed him for 21 days for contempt of court before he returned for sentencing.

Thornhill admitted a separate charge of racial abuse of the security officer, who is black.

Two security staff were present in court throughout the sentencing hearing and three dock officers were summoned from the court cells to take him into custody.

For Thornhill, Kevin Blount said he had a very short temper and his mouth tended to run away with him. He had taken anger management courses in the past and was working hard on controlling himself. But he still had more work to do.

He suffered from depression that meant it was difficult to motivate himself. On the day of the trial, he had been in low spirits because the previous Sunday had been Father’s Day and he had not received a message from his daughter, whom he had fallen out with before Christmas.

York Press

‘Disgusting deviant’ caged after grooming young girls online

By
July 5, 2017
Uncategorized
Luke Atkinson incited girls as young as 13-years-old to send him graphic images and videos of themselves after contacting them via social media

Luke Atkinson incited girls as young as 13-years-old to send him graphic images and videos.


A “disgusting” paedophile from Retford who used social media to groom teenage girls has been jailed for four years and eight months.

Luke Atkinson, 29, pleaded guilty to sexual offences including inciting sexual activity with a child and possessing indecent images of children.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Atkinson incited girls as young as 13-years-old to send him graphic images and videos of themselves after contacting them through social media.

When they decided they didn’t want to send him any more pictures of themselves Atkinson threatened and blackmailed them, saying he would post pictures they had sent him online unless they did so.

Nottinghamshire Police launched an investigation after receiving information from colleagues in Durham in April 2015 that they had received a report from the mother of a 14-year-old girl who had been contacted by a person on Facebook and had made inappropriate sexualised comments to her daughter.

The suspect was identified as Luke Atkinson, of Exchange Street, Retford.

When officers arrested him at his home in September 2015 on suspicion of inciting a child into sexual activity, Atkinson was also found in possession of cannabis which he was also arrested for and later admitted to.

After a detailed examination of Atkinson’s mobile phone, a number of other girls he had also incited sexual activity with were identified and, in June 2016, he was additionally arrested for further offences.

Five girls, aged 13 to 16, bravely came forward to give evidence against Atkinson. Two of the victims were from the Doncaster area, with the others from the Leeds, Gainsborough and Rotherham areas.

The court heard that the victims made it clear to Atkinson how old they were when communicating with him on social media.

One of the girls, aged 13 when she was initially contacted by Atkinson, told officers at interview that ‘her heart sank’ whenever he made contact with her.

She feared he would never go away as every time she had tried to get away from him he would come back again via a different social media platform.

Another victim, aged 15 at the time, said at interview that the only reason she sent graphic videos of herself to Atkinson was because he was blackmailing her saying he would post pictures of her on Facebook if she didn’t. She said this made her feel sick and disgusted in herself.

Atkinson, who was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday, June 3, was also made subject of a sexual harm prevention order, a restraining order not to contact the victims and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.

Speaking after his sentencing, Detective Constable Richard Hewitt of Nottinghamshire Police said: “The girls who were subject of Atkinson’s offending were so brave to come forward and speak out, giving some very upsetting interviews about their traumatic experiences.

“They showed great courage in keeping it together during a lengthy court process and that’s great credit to them.

“Atkinson is a loathsome individual who threatened his victims into adhering to his demands.

“His actions were nothing short of disgusting but thankfully this sexual deviant is now behind bars.”

An NSPCC spokesman said: “Atkinson believed he could get away with exploiting children but has rightly been brought to justice.

“We hope the girls who bravely came forward to the police now receive the necessary help and support to overcome what has happened to them.

“Atkinson’s behaviour is another example of how groomers use social media to prey on children so it is vital parents and carers talk to their children about staying safe online.”

Advice is available on the charity’s Net Aware website or through the NSPCC and O2’s online safety helpline on 0808 8005002.
Lincolnshire Live

‘Low life scum’ sex offender jailed again for contacting Plymouth victim.

By
July 4, 2017
Uncategorized

A pervert jailed for a decade for sexually abusing underage girls has been handed more time behind bars for writing a letter to one of his victims.

Dale Hewitt, aged 27, was branded a “low life scum” by the mum of one of the schoolgirls – who were driven to cut themselves or attempt suicide.

He was jailed last year for ten years for a string of sex offences, many committed after he plied his victims with drugs.

Hewitt, now at HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, wrote a letter which was delivered to the home of one of the girls a month after he was sentenced.

He appeared at Plymouth Crown Court via videolink to admit breaching the order banning him from contacting the girl.

James Targhidissian, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said she received a letter addressed to someone else, but clearly in Hewitt’s handwriting and directed at her, in August last year.

He added she told police she “went as white as a ghost”.

Mr Targhidissian said the letter was not threatening, enquiring about her and speaking about life in prison.

He added she went on holiday but handed the letter back upon her return.

Ali Rafati, for Hewitt, said: “He was not the person who sent the letter and did not authorise it.”

He asked why it had taken so long to bring the case to court.

Mr Rafati said that, with no response from the girl, Hewitt accepted he would not contact her “nor anyone else”.

Judge Paul Darlow said the letter had not been threatening and had not caused “serious psychological harm”.

He jailed Hewitt for three weeks, to be served at the end of his current sentence. Hewitt’s earliest release date is in four years.

Plymouth Crown Court heard last year that Hewitt slept with one schoolgirl and touched another indecently, often after giving them mephedrone and cannabis.

Hewitt handled weapons including a machete in front of the girls, then aged 13 and 14.

Manipulative Hewitt supplied both girls with mephedrone, or bubble, and sometimes cannabis before touching them sexually. He never asked for any money.

One girl told the jury through her recorded police interview that she was “wrecked” on drugs and alcohol, but Hewitt still had sex with her at his old flat in Clifton Place, Greenbank.

He later abducted a third girl aged 14, whom police found in the shower at his flat. The girl came to his home willingly, but Hewitt was under a duty to call the authorities.

Hewitt, previously of Marlborough Street, Devonport, changed his pleas during a trial to admit four counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child between December 2014 and February 2015.

He also admitted four counts of sexual activity with the other girl between April and December 2014.

Hewitt pleaded guilty to abducting the third teenager in February last year.

Hewitt was involved in a war of words with a weapon-loving thug who went on to murder innocent New Year’s Eve reveller Tanis Bhandari.

Hewitt traded threats with Donald Pemberton on Facebook – one of several men who helped provoke the random violence that night.

The jury in Hewitt’s trial were not told of his part in the night of terror which led to the murder of the 27-year-old builder in Tamerton Foliot on New Year’s Day, 2015.

Pemberton, then aged 21, and co-defendant Ryan Williams, then aged 22, were jailed for life just under 12 months later for the joint murder of Mr Bhandari.

Plymouth Herald

Jail for Sunderland man who launched racist attack on woman wearing an Islamic head garment

By
July 3, 2017
Uncategorized


A serial criminal who launched a foul-mouthed racist attack on a woman wearing an Islamic head garment has been locked up for more than a year.

Peter Scotter’s barrister insisted it was no co-incidence that his client committed the offences just weeks after the Brexit referendum last year and amid continued political discussions

“playing the race card”.

Scotter, 56, of Beach Street, Roker, Sunderland, assaulted the mother, who was shopping with her nine-year-old son and husband, and said “you are in our country now” before beginning his tirade of racial abuse.

The force he then used to pull off the niqab garment in July last year in the Bridges Shopping Centre, Sunderland, caused her to fall to the floor.

Tony Hawks, defending, told Newcastle Crown Court that in the weeks leading up to the attack certain politicians and sections of the press had been “playing the race card”.

He said there was “no doubt that what he did was an ignorant and despicable piece of behaviour” and he was an “ignorant and ill-educated man” who “knows nothing whatsoever about Islam”.

But he added: “It’s no coincidence that this occurred within a week or so of the Brexit referendum. Where the press and politicians were banging the drum about taking our country back.

“They were playing the race card and, in the case of Ukip, a disgraceful advertisement showing a queue of refugees.

“He has to take responsibility for his own actions, but is it simply a coincidence that after listening to weeks of that rhetoric the defendant was not affected?”

Prosecutor Neil Pallister told the court that Scotter was escorted out of the centre by a security guard after the assault but refused to comply with two police community support officers and continued the torrent of abuse.

At a previous hearing he admitted racially aggravated assault by beating and racially aggravated harassment.

He has also been receiving treatment for cancer in his mouth, meaning Monday’s sentencing hearing was postponed a number of times.

The court heard he had 70 previous convictions, including throwing bricks with racist stickers on them at a house with refugees inside.

Mr Pallister said the victim described how she regularly suffers abuse but that this was way beyond what she and her family normally endured.

She said it had left her fearful to go out and “disgusted” that it had happened in front of her son.

Members of the public who ran to her help spoke of their shock and one shop assistant said she was moved to tears.

Jailing Scotter for 15 months, Judge Stephen Earl said he had used “appalling language” in a public place.

He said: “Comments such as these cannot be acceptable in a civilised society.”

He also ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £140.

Sunderland Echo

Peter Scotter jailed over Sunderland niqab attack

By
July 3, 2017
Uncategorized

A man who pulled a niqab off a woman’s face and called her a “stupid” Muslim has been jailed for 15 months.

Peter Scotter shouted “You are in our country now” when he attacked his victim, who was with her young son, at a Sunderland shopping centre last July.

The 56-year-old, of Beach Street, Roker, had admitted racially aggravated assault by beating and racially aggravated harassment.

He was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court.

The judge said it was “appalling abusive behaviour grounded in religious bigotry”.

At an earlier hearing, the court was told the victim, 29, was standing outside the Bridges shopping centre when Scotter grabbed her veil and almost threw her to the ground.

After his arrest, he said: “She could have been a bomber.”

His victim was left feeling as if she could not go out, prosecutor Laura Lax said.

Tony Hawks, defending, said Scotter had recently been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour under his tongue and was due to undergo surgery.

He had 66 previous convictions, including actual bodily harm and racially aggravated criminal damage.
BBC News