Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Footballer’s relief after cabbie attack verdict
Racist brother spewed abuse during fare row assault Exclusive
A semi-professional footballer cleared of taking part in a brutal attack on a city cabbie has told how the case had been “hanging over the heads” of him and his family.
Herne Bay FC’S Ben Brown, 27, was found not guilty of assaulting Ami Masomi following a trial which took almost three years to reach court.
His friend Stuart Fitchie, who has played for Canterbury City FC, was also acquitted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday.
But the Gazette can reveal for the first time that Brown’s 21-year-old brother, Harry Brown, was spared jail by a judge after admitting a racially aggravated assault on the same taxi driver.
A court order banned publication of his 14-month suspended sentence until the conclusion of last week’s fiveday trial.
Speaking after the verdict, Ben Brown, of Weyman Terrace, Herne Bay, said: “We have been affected by this, which has been hanging over our heads and the heads of our families, for a long time.
“I am just glad a jury has finally found us not guilty.”
The trial centred around an attack on Mr Masomi on the night the Brown brothers and Mr Fitchie celebrated a cupfinal win in May 2014.
The cabbie was left with four of his teeth embedded in his gum following the assault in Canterbury Lane.
Mr Fitchie, 27, of Tankerton Road, Whitstable, and Ben Brown both denied causing Mr Masomi actual bodily harm, while Harry Brown admitted the assault charge and criminal damage.
Canterbury Crown Court heard how the three had been to the Black Griffin and Bishop’s Finger pubs in the city before heading to The Loft Bar.
Prosecutor Craig Evans told how the two brothers left at 1.40am to get a taxi to Ben Brown’s flat but on the way they received a call to return to the bar to collect Mr Fitchie.
Mr Masomi said he asked for payment for the trip in full and when it was not forthcoming decided to return to the Loft, where he planned to drop them off and return their £15 deposit.
During the argument, the taxi driver told the jury how Harry Brown, who also plays for Herne Bay FC, began shouting vile racist abuse and telling him to “go back to your own country”.
Mr Masomi triggered a distress signal in his vehicle and drove to the taxi rank at Canterbury Lane “as fast as I could in case they attacked me”.
The jury heard that during the trip the in-car CCTV camera was ripped away by Harry Brown and thrown out the win- dow. After stopping, Mr Masomi got out of his car because he feared being attacked.
“I wanted them to get out of my cab,” he said. “Then one of them (Harry Brown) came towards me and headbutted me once in the face quite hard then I got another punch in the face.
“It landed in my lower teeth and was so intense that four of my teeth pierced my gums.”
Harry Brown, of Talmead Road, Broomfield, claimed he threw the camera out of the car “for a bit of fun”, adding that the clash of heads had been an accident.
He was given a 14-month jail sentence suspended for two years in September last year and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.