Trooper ‘sucker punched’ Muslim soldier after pub
Court martial told of attack at barracks
A SCOT sucker-punched a Muslim fellow soldier who’d asked his “racist” best friend to stop mocking his religion, a court martial has heard.
Trooper Declan Coutts and English pal Tpr Maxwell Nicholls mocked Tpr Azaan Aziz-Sheikh before punching him and kicking him in the face, a panel was told.
All three young soldiers were recruits with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
The hearing was told Nicholls drank five pints before allegedly racially abusing Tpr
Aziz-Sheikh on October 30 then eight more drinks before he and Coutts attacked him.
Tpr Aziz-Sheikh told Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire that Nicholls “said to me ‘Mashallah’ and said it in a very dishonouring and derogatory way which I took offence to.
“The previous day he said Allah is fake and my religion was a scam so it made me think he was a racist.” He said later, back at barracks in Windsor, Nicholls “without warning tried to punch me and I dodged it.
“I pushed him and he tried to bite my neck. I shoved him then gave him an uppercut and swept his legs so I floored him.
“Tpr Nicholls said, ‘Why don’t you take the p*** again?’ and I replied, ‘Like you take the p*** out of my religion?’
“Tpr Coutts, as soon as I said about my religion, out of nowhere he gave me a sucker punch to the side of my face. I think I blacked out.
“I remember waking up and my vision was blurry. I saw Tpr Nicholls running around and he came and kicked my face.”
Eleanor Lucas, defending Nicholls, said Tpr Aziz-Sheikh was “riled up” in the pub and Cathryn Sutcliffe, for Coutts, said he’d pushed the soldier first.
Nicholls and Coutts deny nine charges between them.
The trial continues.