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Dad launched vicious racist attack

By
December 16, 2013
assault, EDL, English Defence League, Racial Conviction, racially aggravated assault, Suspended sentence

A father-of-three has been spared jail after assaulting a man and his teenage son with a paving slab as they walked to their mosque.

Shaun Wilkinson, 25, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault after unleashing a barrage of vile racist abuse at the men as they walked down Thompson Street, Preston.

Preston Crown Court heard Wilkinson, of Slaidburn Road, Ribbleton, saw the father and his 14-year-old son approaching and said “watch this” to his girlfriend. As they walked past, Wilkinson punched the father in his face.

The son stepped in to try and help his father, grappling Wilkinson to the ground. However, Wilkinson got up and threw a piece of paving stone, hitting the youngster in the forehead.

Rachel Faux, prosecuting, told the court: “(The father) asked what the problem was and received a barrage of verbal abuse.

“As the father waited for the police to be called there was further abuse from females on the street.”

The police arrived and arrested Wilkinson he continued making racist comments.

During the attack the father’s diabetes flared up and he was taken to hospital with his son.

In a victim impact statement, he said: “The incident has affected me and my son and all our family very badly.

“Before this incident I always used to walk to mosque by walking the same way but now I go to mosque by car.”

Daniel Prowse, defending Wilkinson, said: “This was an extremely ugly incident of gratuitous violence and racist language – something Shaun Wilkinson finds it difficult to comprehend he would even do.”

Shaun Wilkinson - EDL

Shaun Wilkinson – EDL. Courtesy of Islamophobiawatch.co.uk

He said Wilkinson worked with a number of Asian people and felt a sense of “deep shame” about his behaviour.

Wilkinson has a criminal record but Mr Prowse said he has tried very hard to put the past behind him and had stayed out of trouble for four years before the attack.

Wilkinson was handed a 14 month sentence suspended for 18 months with a curfew between 9pm and 8am for six months.

He must also carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and pay his victims £500 compensation each.

Lancashire Evening Post

Jail for racist thug who shouted ‘EDL’ when he attacked a taxi driver

By
July 19, 2013
actual bodily harm, EDL, English Defence League, Jailed, Racial Conviction, racially-aggravated common assault

A RACIST thug who punched a taxi driver and dragged him along a street, has been jailed for 18 months.

Lee Preston, 22, targeted cabbie Mohammed Rashid, leaving him with two black eyes, a bruised face and grazes to his shoulders caused when he was dragged to the ground.

Mr John Hallisey, prosecuting, said the cabbie received a call at 9pm on April 16 to collect five men from Chaddesden.

He noticed they were carrying cans of lager and told them these could not be drunk in his vehicle

But after a few minutes, the men started drinking.

“Mr Rashid told them to stop and the response was to start hurling abuse.

“The defendant was saying ‘we are EDL,’ referring to the English Defence League,” said Mr Hallisey.

Preston, of Walbrook Road, Derby, began to throw beer cans out of the taxi until Mr Rashid closed the windows – a move which angered the passengers.

Mr Rashid stopped his cab and told the five to leave.

One said: “Get out and we’ll sort you out.”

When they eventually left, they failed to close the rear doors but Mr Rashid waited until he thought they had walked away before getting out of the cab..

But he was then grabbed and prevented from getting back into the vehicle before being attacked.

During this, he heard chants of “EDL” and one man said: “I’m going to kill you.”

When a second taxi driver stopped to help, he was also assaulted and had his vehicle kicked.

Police were called and Preston was found hiding under a bush.

He admitted affray and racially aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm.

Judge Granville Styler told Preston: “In drink you are a complete lout. This will tarnish your whole career if you are not very careful. This was a disgraceful episode as you no doubt now realise.”

Clive Stockwell, mitigating, told the court: “His record is of a nuisance drunk. I have read a statement from his father who is clearly of the view that his son had a difficulty with drink and he then behaves in a most disgraceful way.”

Mr Stockwell said Preston had gained some educational qualifications while in custody. When he is freed, his father plans to find him work on market stalls.”

The judge told Preston: “It may well be you find on the market stall most of your customers will be Pakistani people so you will have to change your attitude pretty quickly.”

Three other men have pleaded not guilty to charges arising from the night and are awaiting trial. A fifth man has pleaded guilty.

Derby Telegraph

Man jailed for racially aggravated assault

By
July 19, 2013
assault, EDL, English Defence League, Jailed, Racial Conviction, racially aggravated assault

A Luton man, who carried out a racially aggravated assault when a mob went on the rampage in Luton in May last year, has been sentenced to 16 months imprisonment today, March 26, at Luton Crown Court.

Kier McElroy, 19, of Langford Drive, attacked a young Asian man in a shop doorway in Chapel Street, hitting him across the head with a placard he was holding.

On March 5, a jury at Luton Crown Court, found McElroy guilty of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm on a Luton student.

He had earlier admitted assaulting the student occasioning him actual bodily harm and a second charge of affray, which resulted from his actions that day.

Luton Today

Four locked up for slashing teen in Thornhill Lees

By
July 18, 2013
Jailed, possessing an offensive weapon, Racial Conviction, racially-aggravated common assault

A JUDGE has condemned a gang which got embroiled in a ‘spiral of violence’ in Dewsbury.

This week four men were jailed for an attack on two teenagers, which Leeds Crown Court heard was the result of heightened racial tensions in Thornhill Lees.

Two of the defendants, Josh Foster and Jordan Williams, were seeking revenge after being beaten up by a group of Asian males in October.

Melvin Watts, 19, told police the pair called for him on November 3 and told him, ‘Tonight’s the night’. Watts thought this meant they were going to find the men who had attacked them. He said he took a craft knife for self-defence.

The trio called for Dale Oakley, 21, and all four went to Thornhill Lees where they set upon two Asian teenagers in Lees Hall Road.

Williams hit one of the teenagers with a stick and Watts slashed one of them across the face.

Abdul Iqbal, mitigating, said the other men started attacking the two teenagers before Watts got involved.

Mr Iqbal said: “He took that as a tacit confirmation that these were the people they were looking for.”

But David Bradshaw, prosecuting, said neither of the victims were linked with the assault on Foster and Williams.

He added that Williams, 18, had told officers that Watts had invited friends on Facebook to go ‘muzzy hunting’.

Mr Iqbal said there had been heightened racial tensions in Thornhill Lees after Jack Carter had been killed by an Asian man in August. But Richard Canning, mitigating, said Foster did not see the attack as racist.

Sam Andrews and Robin Frieze for Williams and Oakley said both had shown remorse.

Watts, of Mountain Road, Thornhill, was given five years in a young offenders’ institute for wounding with intent and possessing an offensive weapon.

Foster, 18, of Grange Crescent, Tadcaster, was given 15 months in a young offenders’ institute for wounding and racially aggravated assault.

Oakley, of Thorn Avenue, Thornhill, was jailed for 18 months for the same offences.

Williams, of Partridge Crescent, Thornhill, was sent to a young offenders’ institute for 18 months for wounding, racially aggravated assault and possessing an offensive weapon.

Judge Colin Burn said: “I have heard about the death of Mr Carter and it is clear it is a part of a cycle or spiral of violence in your area. You four, with some enthusiasm, decided to get yourselves involved.

“What you did was completely unacceptable in any civilised society. Both complainants were traumatised by what happened to them and in the case of one, he has been left with a permanent facial scar.

“It’s an absolute miracle that his eye was not put out.”

Dewsbury Reporter

Swansea couple jailed for racist attack on daughter, 17

By
July 18, 2013
Jailed, Racial Conviction, racially aggravated harassment, Racist Abuse

wales

The parents of a 17-year-old girl, jailed for attacking her because she was going out with a black man, have been called “disgraceful” by a judge.

David Champion, 50, from Swansea, and his wife Frances, hit daughter Jane for “bringing shame” on the family.

The father also abused her boyfriend Alfonce Ncube with racist language before grabbing and kicking him.

Champion was jailed for 12 months at Swansea Crown Court, and his wife to nine months. Both admitted assault.

The father also admitted a charge of racially aggravated assault against Mr Ncube.

Frances Champion admitted using threatening, abusive or offensive words or behaviour to cause racially aggravated fear or provocation of violence towards Mr Ncube.

The court heard parents attacked their daughter after returning home to find her in a “state of undress” with Mr Ncube.

After abusing and assaulting Mr Ncube, Champion then grabbed his daughter, now 18, by her hair.

He accused her of “bringing shame” on the family and started to hit her.

Nicola Powell, prosecuting, said: “He told her she was destroying the family and pushed her out of the front door of the family home in St Thomas, Champion shouting racist language to describe Mr Ncube.”

The court heard the teenager went to stay with her grandmother for a while but later returned home

But a month later, after the couple had been drinking, they came home from the pub and challenged her over the relationship.

Miss Powell said: “David Champion asked his daughter if she was still seeing Mr Ncube. When she told him she was, he punched her in the face.

“Miss Champion said she felt huge pain to her left eye, but her father then grabbed her by her throat, and continued hitting her.”

The court heard Mrs Champion yelled: “You deserve it. It is all your fault.”

She also hit her daughter and told her she had “brought shame on her family,” the court heard.

The couple also had to be removed from the restaurant where Mr Ncube worked after going there and shouting for him.

He was “in hiding” during the incident. Frances Champion continued to bang on the restaurant’s window, the court heard.

John Hipkin, defending David Champion, said his client knew his “abhorrent” assault was “not excusable in any way, shape or form”.

He said: “But the circumstances in which he found his young daughter meant he reacted in a terrible way. Lessons have been learned.”
‘Cannot be tolerated’

Georgina Buckley, defending Frances Champion, said her client admitted her “disgraceful” actions were “fuelled by alcohol” and that she “confronted her daughter in a wholly unacceptable and disgusting way”.

“She is remorseful and her daughter has sent her a text message before the court hearing wishing her well.”

Judge Peter Heywood told the couple: “Your behaviour was disgraceful and you used vile language.

“We live in a liberal and enlightened society and these sorts of racist behaviour cannot be tolerated.

“The way you reacted was totally inappropriate.

“I would be failing in my public duty if I was to do anything other than to impose a custodial sentence

BBC News

Outrage as lout who flouts sentence still avoids prison

By
July 18, 2013
criminal damage, Racial Conviction, racially aggravated assault, Suspended sentence

A taxi driver has hit out at a thug who used a legal loophole to avoid jail after subjecting him to a violent assault.

Shaun Burns, 19, of Mayfield Avenue, Ingol, was found guilty of racially aggravated assault and criminal damage to the taxi during the period of a previous three months sentence, suspended for a year, imposed in May 2011 for affray.

But a shameful legal loophole has seen him walk out of court a free man,.

His suspended jail term had originally been imposed by Crown court, meaning magistrates, who found him guilty of the attack in March, had to commit his sentencing to the crown court.

Burns then appealed the verdict, leading to a further delay in sentence. He then abandoned the appeal.

By the day of Burn’s sentencing on Thursday – four months after his case was committed – the period of his suspended sentence had expired and Judge Ian Leeming QC, sitting at Preston’s Sessions House, ruled it would be ‘unjust’ to activate the order.

Instead Burns walked out of court with another suspended term, this time for 16 weeks suspended for a year, with 100 hours unpaid work, £350 costs and £520 compensation.

Earlier this year father–of-five Muhammed Hussain, from Holme Slack, Preston, told how he feared for his life after Burns, his partner Bryanne-Serrita Langham, 22, and friend Callum Tennant, 20, launched a racist attack on him before threatening to “take him down a side street and kill him”.

During the terrifying incident last December his attackers even threatened to cut off the Miller’s taxi driver’s beard.

Today a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: “Shaun Burns was found guilty after trial on March 22, 2012 at Preston Magistrates Court of racially aggravated common assault and criminal damage.

“The magistrates decided they had insufficient sentencing powers for these particular offences and committed the case to Preston Crown Court for sentence. The CPS was advised that Mr Burns was to exercise his right to appeal this conviction and therefore the Crown Court took the case out of the listing pending the outcome of the appeal.

“The appeal was subsequently abandoned by the defence and the case was relisted for sentence at Preston Crown Court on July 19.”

Tennant, of Marshall Grove, Ingol, was found guilty of racially aggravated assault and criminal damage to the taxi, which was kicked and dented when Mr Hussain pulled over to let them out at Lane Ends pub in Ashton.

He was given a community order, five month curfew and 200 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £130 compensation and £50 costs in March.

Langham, 22, of Sylvancroft, Ingol, pleaded guilty to criminal damage to a taxi and making off without paying the £4.50 fare and was ordered to pay £84.50 compensation, a £100 fine, a £15 victim surcharge and £40 costs.

Mr Hussain, 36, had picked up the group from Marshall Grove on December 28, last year.

Lancashire Evening Post

Ian Brazier, Man Who Ripped Muslim Woman’s Veil From Her Face In Shopping Centre, Spared Jail

By
July 18, 2013
Racial Conviction, racially aggravated assault

A man who ripped off a Muslim woman’s veil in a shopping centre because he thought she was “just another illegal immigrant” has been spared jail.

Ian Brazier, from Shirley, Solihull, was given a six-week sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete a diversity awareness course by magistrates in the town.

The 26-year-old had admitted racially aggravated assault at an early hearing.

The court heard that he tore Farhana Chughtai’s niqab from her face and threw it on the floor in Solihull’s Touchwood complex on March 3 as she shopped with family.

Alan Bryce, defending, said his client was angry at the time of the incident because he had been smoking cannabis and the films he was planning to watch at the centre’s cinema were not showing.

He said: “He was angry that he couldn’t see the films or the films he wanted to see weren’t there.

“All these pent-up emotions were unfortunately released when he saw this lady.”

The solicitor said Mrs Chughtai was a “random victim”, spotted by unemployed Mr Brazier as he came down an escalator in the complex.

He said: “He had been taking cannabis and it had made him angry.

“He saw her and he thought ‘There’s just another illegal immigrant’.”

The court heard that Mrs Chughtai, from Balsall Heath, Birmingham, told police she felt “naked and violated” by the assault.

In a statement released by West Midlands Police after the sentencing, the 26-year-old victim said: “At the time of the attack I felt violated and very distressed.

“Today, I remain self-conscious and worry that the same thing may happen to me again.

“I am aware of other similar incidents in the West Midlands which have not been reported to police.

“This should not be the case; victims should report these crimes as soon as they happen.

“I am pleased with West Midlands Police’s efforts to trace my attacker and the way they have handled this investigation and I would like to extend my thanks to the officers involved.”

Chief Inspector Kevin Doyle said: “Despite the shocking nature of this offence, reports of crimes like this are exceptionally rare both in Solihull and the wider West Midlands.

“When they are reported to us, I would like to assure victims that they are investigated thoroughly, professionally and victims treated with the utmost dignity and respect.

“Today’s sentence shows that there is no place for hate in Solihull.”

Brazier was given an 18-month supervision order and told he must complete a 21-day activity requirement which examines diversity and prejudice.

Chairman of the bench Mark Kershaw also ordered him to complete 250 hours of unpaid work in the community and pay £100 compensation to the victim.

Huffington Post