Refugee scarred for life by yobs
A TEENAGE refugee has been left “scarred for life” after a racially motivated attack by a mob of up to 30 people, police said.
Innocent Kurdish-Iranian Reker Ahmed, 17, sustained a fractured spine and eye socket and a bleed on the brain after the “horrendous” beating.
Theresa May condemned the “despicable” attack and said she “absolutely agreed” with MP Gavin Barwell that those responsible were “scum”.
Reker, who is in an induced coma after last Friday’s brawl, was set upon as he stood at a bus stop in Croydon, South London, with asylum-seeker friends Dilshad Mohammed, an IraqiKurd, and Hamo Mustafa.
Det Supt Jane Corrigan said CCTV images showed the student’s head being stamped on. She said: “This was an unprovoked attack and it was as a result of him being an asylum seeker.
“They specifically asked if they were asylum seekers and when they confirmed they were, they were set upon by this group that then grew. It’s gone from this small group up to 20 or 30 people. He’s going to be scarred for life as a result of the beating. His face did receive some significant injuries, but without doubt this will leave a lasting [psychological] scar.
“I have not seen anything like this, not only in Croydon, in London, in a long, long time. It is really disturbing.”
One eyewitness, who called the police, said Reker’s bloodied face was so badly beaten he was “unrecognisable”.
Police were last night trying to track down the schoolboy’s family, who are still believed to be in Iran.
Aso Abdorahman, 42, who is Kurdish and lives near the scene of the attack, said that Reker had been at the bus stop looking to head to East Croydon. Mr Abdorahman said the two friends Reker was with had told him “two ladies and six men” came from The Goat pub and asked “Where are you from?” One of the lads answered “Iraq” and at that point “they stabbed us”.
He added: “It isn’t safe here. Just last year they killed a guy down here. People say, ‘Go back to your own country, it’s our country’.” Schoolboy Reker, who arrived in the UK to live with a legal guardian in Croydon just months ago, was last night expected to be moved from intensive care, when police will try to talk to him.
PM Theresa May was visibly angry as she arrived in Jordan yesterday. She told reporters: “This was an abominable attack – completely unacceptable.”
George Walder, 20, was charged at Croydon magistrates court yesterday with violent disorder and racially aggravated grievous bodily harm and was remanded in custody. Siblings Daryl Davis, 20, and Danyelle Davis, 24, were charged with violent disorder along with Barry Potts, 20, and George’s brother Jack Walder, 24. They were bailed until May 1.
Two more people, Kyran Evans, 23, and a 17-year-old girl were charged with violent disorder last night.
Decorator Raymond Sculley, 29, was cleared at the Old Bailey of murdering Czech catering manager Zdenek Makar, 31. Sculley, of Tower Hamlets, East London, said he acted in self-defence when he hit Makar with a bike lock after a row outside a chicken shop.