FACE OF HATRED
Sick racist who ripped the veil from Muslim mum in shopping centre attack
A man has admitted pulling a veil from a Muslim woman’s face in a racist attack in a Sunderland shopping centre in the days after Brexit.
Peter Scotter targeted the woman, who was with her nine-year son at the Bridges complex in Sunderland city centre on July 3 last year.
The 55-year-old approached his victim, who was waiting outside one of the stores for her husband, reached out and grabbed her niqab veil, pulled it off and threw it on the ground, exposing her face to the public.
He shouted racist abuse during the attack.
At Newcastle Crown Court, Scotter pleaded guilty to racially-aggravated assault by beating in relation to the woman. He also admitted a charge of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.
The court heard both offences were based on Scotter’s assumption that the woman was a member of a particular religious group, namely Islam.
Judge Stephen Earl said a custodial sentence was “inevitable”, given the circumstances of the case and Scotter’s long criminal record.
Tony Hawks, defending, said Scotter has recently been diagnosed with having a serious cancerous tumour under his tongue and faces major surgery next week.
Scotter, of Beach Street, Roker, Sunderland, will be sentenced later.
A previous magistrates’ court hearing was told the victim was left exposed and scared by what happened.
A witness told police Scotter had shouted “take that **** er off, you stupid ****** Muslim” during the attack.
As he walked away he was heard saying “Our Britain, you live by our ******* rules”.
The victim told police after the attack: “This incident has left me scared to go out and I don’t want to go into town again.
“I am disgusted my nineyear-old son had to witness this.”
The woman, who regards Sunderland as her “home city” after moving here almost 30 years ago from Bangladesh, previously told the Echo that she and her family took great comfort in the outpouring of support from Wearsiders in the aftermath of the assault.
The mum-of-four said of her ordeal: “I felt really scared. I haven’t slept a wink since. I’ve just been wandering around the house traumatised.
“But I want to thank everybody who helped and for their messages.
“I don’t feel hate for him, I feel sorry for him.
“As a Muslim, if anyone hates, you love them back, that is what we are taught, to be be peaceful.
“Sunderland is my home city. It is where my life is, where my children were born. It is where I die.”
The attack happened at a time when reports of racial abuse were on the rise following Britain’s exit from the European Union.
“This is my home city. It’s where my children were born” VICTIM