Brexit rhetoric blamed for attack on Muslim

Politicians “playing the race card” encouraged a man to tear a face veil off a Muslim woman, a court heard.

Peter Scotter, 56, assaulted the mother in the Bridges Shopping Centre, Sunderland, and shouted abuse including: “I’m taking my country back.”

Tony Hawks, defending, told Newcastle Crown Court: “It is no coincidence that this occurred within a week or so of the Brexit referendum, where the press and politicians were banging the drum about taking our country back.”

Scotter was jailed for 15 months and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £140.