Headscarf yob jailed

Teen pulled Muslim garb

A drunken youth who grabbed a Muslim woman’s headscarf and tried to yank it off as she shopped with her mother and baby was this week jailed.

Leighton MacKenzie (18) crept up behind Ghader Mashhadi as she strolled through the Thistles shopping centre and tried to remove the religiously-significant headgear.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard yesterday (Tuesday) that the incident happened on April 18 last year.

Only five days earlier, French premier Manuel Valls had called for a ban on Islamic headscarves at universities, though the court was not told of a connection, and MacKenzie, who admitted assault aggravated by racial prejudice, claimed his actions were “just a prank”.

Lindsey Brooks, prosecuting, said the incident happened at 2.45pm on the day in question. She said Ms Mashhadi (27) was with her 50-year-old mother, and was pushing her baby in a pram.

The depute fiscal said: “She felt her Muslim headscarf being pulled, and turned and saw the accused, who was with another male, who were laughing together, and at her. She was upset, and felt it was disrespectful to her religion.”

She contacted security in the shopping centre, and staff checked CCTV. Of three cameras, one had caught the incident on video. MacKenzie, who could be seen in the recording committing the offence, was traced a week later.

He told police it had been “a prank”, adding “It was stupid, aye.”

MacKenzie, an apprentice joiner, of Keir Avenue, Raploch, pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms Mashhadi by seizing her by the scarf and attempting to remove it, all aggravated by religious prejudice.

Defence solicitor Frazer McCready said despite his plea, MacKenzie “did not consider himself to be a racist”.

He said: “He says he’d had a wee bit to drink. He is clearly an immature young man who is easily influenced when either with friends or intoxicated.

“He had been with friends in the Thistles Centre. They were larking about, as young men sometimes do at that age, and it would appear he was dared by one of his friends to carry out this act.

“At the time it was meant to be funny. It was meant to be a joke. He regrets and accepts that it was clearly disrespectful to the complainer and her religion. I accept it was a nasty incident.”

The court heard that MacKenzie was already serving a sentence at Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution after pleading guilty last week to breach of several community payback orders.

Sheriff Richard McFarlane sentenced MacKenzie to nine weeks’ youth custody, reduced from three months on account of his plea of guilty.

He told him his actions had been “so offensive and upsetting”. He said: “It was wholly obvious what this lady was wearing and why she was wearing it.”

He added: “You are sadly a stark example of youths who drink ridiculous amounts of alcohol and get into trouble .”