A NEWARK man received a suspended prison sentence for his third racially-aggravated offence since 2016.
Chris Conroy, the former head of the English Defence League in Newark, was sentenced by Nottingham magistrates to 12 weeks custody, suspended for a year, for the use of racially-aggravated threatening behaviour towards a police officer.
Conroy, 31, of Wolsey Road, Newark, admitted the offence and must take part in rehabilitation as part of his sentence and pay the officer £50 compensation.
Drunken Leah Neville, aged 44, called officers after seeing herself on the local news
Racist alcoholic Leah Neville spat and kicked a police officer
A half-naked racist alcoholic attacked a policeman after seeing herself on the television news, a court heard.
Drunken Leah Neville, aged 44, called officers herself after seeing footage of her abusive behaviour in a takeaway on BBC Spotlight.
Police attended after she threatened to take an overdose but she ended up lashing out at officers, Plymouth Crown Court heard.
Neville had taken off her trousers because she had spilt water over them from a cat’s bowl.
She was jailed for 14 months for a string of offences.
Judge Paul Darlow said: “You unleashed a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse at a businessman in a takeaway simply trying to serve the public.
“Taken together (these offences) demonstrate a clear pattern of alcohol and prescription drug-fuelled violent behaviour. You have come to the end of the road.”
Neville, of Cecil Street, Stonehouse, admitted assaulting a police officer in the execution of his duty on October 14.
She admitted racially-aggravated threatening behaviour at the Stoke Grill on April 16.
The offences put her in breach of a 10-month suspended prison sentence imposed last year for another racially-aggravated threatening behaviour offence.
Hollie Gilbery, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Neville demanded to be served in the takeaway. But she was told she was banned because of her previous bad behaviour.
She then started to abuse worker Warven Saadi, saying: “I will kill you, I will slice open your throat.”
The court heard she also told him to “go back to your own country”
Miss Gilbery said that Neville twice threw menus at Mr Saadi. He later told police he felt “embarrassed and upset”.
She added that Neville called police on October 14, apparently having seen the takeaway incident on the regional television news.
Miss Gilberry said officers attended but she became violent, spitting and kicking out at one male constable. She also ripped an epaulette from his shoulder.
The barrister said that during the incident she knocked the water from a cat’s bowl over her legs – and insisted on taking off her trousers.
Miss Gilberry said that officers were forced to call a female colleague because of her state of undress.
Nick Lewin, for Neville, said: “She is obviously a very pathetic individual. She is a very confused woman.”
He pointed to a probation report which helped explain her behaviour – factors which were not aired in court.
Mr Lewin said: “It clearly provides an explanation as to why she has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. She is a classic alcoholic.
“She cannot it seems make that break. She is gradually falling apart physically and mentally.”
He added she had serious and long-term mental health dificulties.
The barrister said the was on a range of different medications.
Mr Lewin said there had been some “limited success” on her community order.
He added: “She is not a bad woman, she really is not a bad woman”.
Mr Lewin asked for a month’s remand in custody to provide her with an “immediate detoxification”. She would then be sentenced in January.
A thug hurled foul racial abuse at a takeaway restaurant worker and assaulted his mother’s girlfriend.
Daniel Habberjam had 10 months added to the two-year prison sentence he is currently serving for a violent street attack on a former girlfriend in front of her three-year-old daughter.
Leeds Crown Court heard Habberjam was drunk when he entered a takeaway in Pontefract town centre on June 26 last year and accused a member of staff of being a “nonse”.
Habberjam shouted foul-mouthed racist abuse at the victim and accused him of having sex with an underage girl.
Habberjam also said: “Get out of our country, you do not belong here.”
The 30-year-old smashed a car window outside the premises as he left.
Robert Yates, prosecuting, said Habberjam attacked his partner’s mother days later at her home in Pontefract.
He threw her onto a sofa and grabbed her throat during the incident before being stopped by his partner.
Habberjam, of Cromwell Crescent, Pontefract, pleaded guilty to assault, criminal damage, racially aggravated threatening behaviour and breach of a criminal behaviour order.
The court heard Habberjam has previous convictions for violence.
He was given a two-year sentence earlier this year for punching his former partner in the street and throwing her to the floor. Christopher Morton, mitigating, said Habberjam had admitted the offences at an early stage.
Mr Morton said his client was now single, employed and expected his prison sentence to be increased. Sentencing Habberjam judge Christopher Batty said: “You have got an awful record for violence and abuse and damage.”
A drunk man shouted racist abuse during a hospital visit on Christmas Day and claimed to back the BNP, a court heard.
Homeless Richard Sykes, 36, told staff at the Queen’s Medical Centre: “I am going to hurt every **** here” before making a comment supporting the far right party.
Ali Zaki, prosecuting, told Nottingham magistrates: “Many of the staff are of Asian, Indian and Pakistani heritage.”
Road builder Sykes was said to be “extremely drunk” and had also taken the drug cocaine that day, added Mr Zaki.
The court heard that Sykes had 36 previous convictions including one for a racially aggravated offence in March 2014. A £120 fine, £50 prosecution costs and a £30 government surcharge were ordered from Sykes, who pleaded guilty to racially aggravated threatening behaviour.
Nigel Dicks, mitigating, said: “Like most people in this situation, he is not racially motivated and certainly is not in the BNP. This is just someone who can’t even remember what language came out of his mouth when he was in that situation in the hospital.
“There is no underlying malice and he apologises to the court.”
Father-of-two Sykes is currently living on £400 wages left over after working for a firm which went bankrupt. He is “sofa surfing and has no underlying problem with drug or drink abuse,” added Mr Dicks.
Presiding magistrate John Perry told Sykes: “This happened in a public place and was racially aggravated as well.”
Jonny Karrasch targeted a three-year-old boy along with a couple
A man launched a random attack on a little boy and a couple out trick-or-treating with their young daughter.
Kirklees Magistrates heard how the bizarre incident in Lockwood happened after Jonny Karrasch downed his pub raffle prize of eight pints of lager.
His behaviour caused one terrified mother and daughter to flee and a pregnant woman and her partner to detain him after he went to a home and assaulted a three-year-old boy standing on the doorstep.
Prosecutor Vanessa Jones, prosecuting, said that on the evening of October 22 Shahbia Shahid and her mother were returning home in their car.
They stopped in Milner Street and as they got out of the vehicle Karrasch approached them. He shouted at the women: “Who do you think you are?
“It will take me two minutes to know who you are and where you live.”
Taking this as a threat, the frightened women ran away with Miss Shahid seeking shelter in a relative’s home nearby.
Karrasch, of New Street in Meltham, continued to shout and swear and grabbed hold of her wrist as she tried to get inside.
Mrs Jones said: “At one point there was a three-year-old little boy stood in the hallway and he grabbed hold of the boy by his shirt and tried to pull him out of the house.”
As the two women at the house tried to push door shut, the 24-year-old let go of the child and got his own leg trapped in the door.
They opened the door to release his leg and managed to close the door on him, resulting in Karrasch punching and kicking at the door and causing £300 of damage.
Police were called and after a few minutes he stopped and ran down the street towards a pregnant woman who was with her partner and eight-year-old girl.
Mrs Jones said: “Karrasch tried to hit the male and because of his demeanour they detained him on the floor until police arrived.
“The (female) witness said that they were walking along the street with their little girl going trick or treating and saw the male with his t-shirt ripped and he was shouting.
“He kept calling her ‘Chelsea’ and said: ‘You say you are with me or if not I’ll get locked up’.
“He peered towards the little girl and said: ‘Come here, beautiful’ and she was scared and started crying.”
As the couple detained Karrasch he used racist language, magistrates were told.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of assault, criminal damage, racially-aggravated threatening behaviour and possession of cannabis.
Victoria Sims, mitigating, described her client’s offences as “totally out of character.”
She explained: “He’d been in the pub, won the raffle and consumed his prize of eight pints of lager.
“Mr Karrasch doesn’t usually drink that much and that’s due to a cocktail of medication he takes.
“He simply doesn’t remember the offences but that doesn’t excuse his behaviour and he hasn’t touched alcohol since.”
Magistrates sentenced Karrasch to 10 weeks in prison, suspended for two years.
He must complete a community order with 10 days of rehabilitative activities and curfew for six weeks.
Karrasch also has to pay £50 compensation to each of his victims and £300 to help fix the damaged door.
An impatient man made racist remarks and gave a Nazi salute while he was at Blackpool police headquarters.
Darren Dale was annoyed because he thought the wait to see whether police would recommend he got a peddlars licence was too long,
Dale, , 37, of Reads Avenue, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated threatening behaviour.
He was sentenced to a 12 months community order with up to 20 days rehabilitation to be supervised by the probation service, put on an eight weeks curfew and ordered to pay £85 costs with £85 victims’ surcharge by Blackpool magistrates.
Prosecutor, Martine Connah, said Dale went into Blackpool police station to ask about a peddlars certificate on July 15. An inquiry assistant told him an inspector was considering the matter. He replied the country was done for and kept making racist remarks under his breath.
The assistant said his remarks were inappropriate considering the recent events in France. Dale gave a Nazi salute and said: “I’m going to change my religion and kill people.”
Peter Cave, defending, told the court Dale had been waiting for six weeks for his peddlars license and became distressed.
Darren Mark Lumb, who has previous links to the BNP and EDL, verbally attacked the MP in January this year in West Yorkshire
A constituent has pleaded guilty to mounting an antisemitic verbal attack against Labour MP and shadow communities secretary Jon Trickett.
On 23 January 2015, Darren Mark Lumb, 47, stopped the the MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire in the street and launched into an antisemitic tirade against him.
During the trial on Thursday at Leeds crown court, Lumb changed his plea to guilty to one count of religiously aggravated harassment and stalking with fear of violence, and one count of breaching an asbo.
umb – who has been known to Trickett’s office for a decade – was released on bail on the condition that he did not approach the MP or any member of his staff and he will return to court on 3 March for sentencing.
Lumb has previously had links to the British National Party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and the National Front, and served as BNP organiser for Wakefield and later West Yorkshire.
He has previous convictions for assault and disorder and was convicted in 2011 of using racially aggravated threatening or insulting words and behaviour after he reportedly called a petrol station worker “a black bastard”.
Lumb, who lives in South Elmsall, stood as a BNP candidate for South Elmsall and South Kirkby in the Wakefield Metropolitan district council election in 2011, where he won 441 votes, 2.6% below the Conservative candidate.
A friend of Trickett’s said the MP had been left shocked and shaken by the incident and that “he hasn’t experienced rage like it in his life”.
Jon Trickett has been MP for Hemsworth since 1996. He served as the parliamentary private secretary to prime minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010 and was then promoted to the shadow cabinet by Ed Miliband in 2011.
Trickett was one of 36 MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership election and was made shadow secretary of state for communities and local government in the shadow cabinet reshuffle following Corbyn’s landslide victory in September 2015.
Michael Howarth was sentenced on 20 May 2015 at Thanet Magistrates’ Court.
He pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault and racially aggravated threatening behaviour.
On 12 December 2014 the 55-year-old, of Crabble Lane, Dover, assaulted a man in High Street, Dover, and the assault was racially aggravated.
The same day he used threatening or abusive words or behaviour within the hearing or sight of someone likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress and the offence was racially aggravated.
Magistrates ordered Howarth to carry out 220 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months and pay £250 in compensation, £150 costs and a £60 victim surcharge
A FORMER soldier from York racially abused a disabled busker in the city centre because he had seen him on TV boasting about claiming benefits, a court has heard.
Mark Hawksby, 34, spotted Viorel Dinu in Coney Street, a week after having seen him on Channel 5’s Gypsies on Benefits and Proud.
Hawksby, of St Mary’s Close in Wigginton, recognised Mr Dinu while he was playing the accordion and rounded on him.
Mr Dinu, who has no legs, was sitting on a skateboard in a shop doorway.
Hawksby claimed there was so much money in his coat by 11.30am that he tripped over it on the pavement.
At York Magistrates Court, Hawksby said: “I had a go at him about being on the programme and what he had said.
“He said he had come to Britain purposely because it was a soft touch.
“I said ‘You’re out of order for going on this TV programme and saying you can milk the system’.”
The court heard Hawksby threw the coat into the gutter in Coney Street, scattering the money.
He also grabbed Dinu’s accordion and threw it into the road, saying: “This is English money for English people.”
The court heard a puzzled crowd formed and Hawksby was grabbed by a girl from a hen party, then stormed off, yelling: “I will see you do not busk in York again.”
Dinu, who travels the country telling people he lost his legs as a child when he was run over by a train, did not report the incident and did not co-operate with police who investigated after complaints from the public.
Hawksby was arrested after his picture was taken by University of York Professor Nick Brown, who shared the images with North Yorkshire Police on Facebook.
Hawksby told officers: “He is not even from York. It costs 23 to 25 quid on the train so he must be earning some right money busking.”
Hawksby denied racially aggravated threatening behaviour but was convicted.
He was given a four month suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay £100 costs and an £80 surcharge.
Mr Dinu had told the Channel 5 programme that he and other Romanians had come to the UK because it was a “soft touch” the court heard.
A gang launched a “completely and utterly disgraceful” racist attack on staff at a Cambridge restaurant in the wake of the Lee Rigby murder.
Mai Thai restaurant, Hobbs Pavilion, Park Terrace, Cambridge: Picture Keith Heppell
The five friends – three of whom have been locked up – chased and assaulted staff, threw glass bottles and bins and hurled racial abuse outside the Mai Thai restaurant by Parker’s Piece as they chanted “EDL”.
They goaded two brothers into coming outside before attacking them while shouting racist abuse on June 6 last year, a few days after the brutal murder of Fusilier Rigby in Woolwich.
The manager of the restaurant, who did not want to be named, told the News after the Cambridge Crown Court sentencing they attacked Muslim and Thai workers – and then turned on some of the 20 or so police officers who arrived on the scene.
He said: “It was very nasty. They attacked staff for no reason who were trying to get on with their work and shouted racial abuse, which was completely and utterly disgraceful.
“I’m glad they have been given these sentences. These are thugs who have got nothing better to do and hopefully this will teach them a lesson that it’s not something they can get away with.”
Marti Blair, prosecuting, said the offence started when one of the group tapped on the window of the restaurant and made aggressive gestures to staff as they were clearing up.
She said: “A member of staff thought it could be some sort of hate race incident and he called police, which was reasonable given the Lee Rigby killing had only just taken place a couple of weeks earlier and there had followed a number of race hate attacks at that time.”
She described how some of the gang started pushing two members of staff, leaving the brothers with damaged ribs and ripped shirts.
They then threw glass bottles and bins at the door while chanting the far right group’s name and demanding they “go home”.
She said: “All of the witnesses describe how the group were chanting EDL and saying things like ‘go back to your country’.”
Joshua Collinson-Prime, 19, formerly of Victoria Road, Arbury, William Jacey, 21, of Brampton Road, Royston, and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all admitted violent disorder.
Leon Jackson, 24, and Daniel Mooney, 20, both of Gonville Place, Trumpington, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of racially aggravated threatening behaviour.
Jacey was jailed for a year, Collinson-Prime was sent to a youth offenders’ institution for a year and the youth was given a one-year detention and training order.
Jackson and Mooney were each given eight-month jail sentences suspended for two years and must do 200 hours of unpaid work. The young group have nearly 40 previous convictions between them.
Judge Gareth Hawkesworth, sentencing at Cambridge Crown Court, described it as a “thoroughly unpleasant racist attack” and added: “It will simply not be tolerated.”
One of the victims said in a statement read out in court that he was still scared for his safety.
He said: “These people know where I work and clearly have an issue with me and the colour of my skin and this is not an issue that is going to go away.”
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