Man sentenced for racial attack

A man who carried out a religiously aggravated attack in Leicester has been given a suspended jail sentence. Alan Young, 55, from Bourne Crescent, Northampton admitted common assault, religiously aggravated assault and harassment on 7 July.

Leicester magistrates heard he had made remarks about Muslims and hit a Muslim man at a health centre on the first anniversary of the London bombings. Young was given a four-month jail sentence suspended for two years. He was also ordered to pay £200 compensation to the man he attacked.

The court heard Young, who had consumed three quarters of a bottle of whiskey, went into the surgery on Evington Road and shouted it was “kill a Muslim day”. He made remarks about the London bombings and punched a Muslim man five or six times in the face. Young then went on to shout further remarks about Muslims from a nearby property and hit an Asian man after making comments about Iraq.

In court the 55-year-old accepted he had behaved very badly.

BBC News, 22 November 2006