Hooligan locked up for racist attack on City star
A FOOTBALL hooligan has been jailed for a racist attack on England and City star Raheem Sterling.
United supporter Karl Anderson, 29, was already the subject of a fiveyear banning order following trouble between Reds and Sheffield United fans after an FA Cup game in January last year.
It meant he could not be in Manchester city centre or Old Trafford on match days.
Anderson has 25 convictions for 37 offences – all football related.
On Saturday he kicked and racially abused Blues winger Sterling as the star arrived at City’s Etihad complex before the game against Tottenham Hotspur.
Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard Anderson pulled his van up next to Mr Sterling’s car outside the City training ground and shouted racist insults at him, calling him a ‘ ****** ,’ a ‘black scouse **** ’ and a ‘black ******* .’ He was also said to have shouted: “I hope your mother and your child wake up dead in the morning.”
Anderson, of Woodward Street, Ancoats, admitted racially aggravated assault at a hearing yesterday and was jailed for 16 weeks.
Sentencing him, chair of the bench Diana Webb-Hobson called the incident an ‘unprovoked attack’ and described the defendant’s previous record as ‘appalling.’
The court was shown CCTV of the incident and prosecutor, Carl Miles, said Anderson verbally abused Mr Sterling using a number of racial slurs before kicking him around four times. Anderson smiled in the dock as he was taken down to the cells.
He will also have to pay compensation costs of £100 with a victim surcharge of £115. Mr Sterling suffered bruising to his leg, the court was told.
In a statement he said he was shocked it had happened to him on his way to work.
“He did not think this kind of behaviour happened in this country in this day and age,” the court was told of Mr Sterling’s reaction to the sickening attack.
John Black, representing Anderson, said Mr Sterling’s injuries were fairly short-term and the offence was not pre-meditated.
“He apologises to Raheem Sterling for his actions,” he added.
He said Mr Anderson said he pulled his van up next to Mr Sterling’s car because his girlfriend wanted an autograph.
There was an ‘exchange of words’ and he ‘lost his temper,’ Mr Black said.
Among his offences, Anderson was jailed for 18 months in July last year for violent disorder; convicted of common assault in April last year; failed to comply with an international football banning order in January last year and November 2015; and a racially aggravated public order offence July 2014.
He was among a group of 11 United fans who were handed three and five-year bans in January this year.
They were issued following trouble at the club’s fixture against Sheffield United in the FA Cup in January last year.
Rival supporters clashed in the Shamrock pub in Bengal Street, Ancoats.
All 11 supporters were alleged to have caused or contributed to violence or disorder in the pub, with all accepting the bans imposed during a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.