A racist Gateshead couple have been jailed after beating a Kurdish asylum seeker with a metal pole.
Damian Smith, 36, and Dawn Thompson, 48, carried out the violent assault in January after previously telling the man to ‘get back’ to his own country.
The victim, who had been granted asylum to live in the UK, lived with his wife in the same block of flats as Smith and Thompson in Gateshead, but he was forced to move after being ‘driven out’.
On Friday, Smith and Thompson, both of Lough Court, Gateshead, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court to be sentenced for section 20 unlawful wounding and theft of a mobile phone. The pair had pleaded guilty to the offences.
The court heard that the victim had been living on the fifth floor of a block of flats at Lough Court with his wife and had been granted asylum after coming to the UK in 2019.
However, he would regularly bear the brunt of racial comments from Smith and Thompson, who lived on the ground floor of the building.
Jessica Slaughter, prosecuting, said: ‘He would be told by the defendants to go back to his country and to stop speaking Kurdish and to speak English [instead]. He [perceived] the comments to be hostile and racist.’
But things took a violent turn on January 20 this year when the victim returned to the block with shopping. Ms Slaughter continued: ‘He was waiting for the lift when Thompson came out of her flat and was abusive to him, telling him, ‘why are you looking at me? I’ve got a partner’. He said he was not looking at her and said he had a wife.’
Thompson then ran to Smith’s flat and shouted for him. Ms Slaughter said: ‘[Smith] came out aggressively and said ‘why are you looking at my girlfriend? It’s because there’s no English people in your country, f*** off, go back to your country’.’
Smith then returned to the scene with a metal pole and hit the man in the head, causing a cut which later had to be glued in hospital.
The victim, who worked at a local shop, managed to avoid being hit a second time by raising his hands, but dropped his phone. Thompson picked up his phone.
Smith then punched the man in the face a couple of times before the victim managed to run away. When he got home, his wife called the police.
Thompson and Smith were arrested a couple of hours later and the victim’s phone was found under a carpet in Smith’s flat. Thompson initially lied to police, telling them she acted in self-defence.
The court was told Smith had 13 previous convictions for 16 offences, including theft, criminal damage, burglary, battery, possession of a blade and possession of class A drugs.
Thompson had 63 previous convictions for 181 offences, the majority of which were for theft. She also had previous convictions for racially aggravated harassment and witness intimidation.
Shaun Routledge, defending Smith, said: ‘He doesn’t consider himself to be racist. At the time of the offending he had problems.’ He said Smith ‘very much regrets and apologises’ for the attack and that he previously had drug issues. He said the attack was ‘over in an instant’ and did not cause grave injury.
Jamie Adams, defending Thompson, said she is a grandmother of nine and has led a ‘troubled life beset by impossible addiction to various substances.’
He said: ‘She would like to change things and had been trying to do that. She has a number of self-esteem issues.’
Sentencing the pair, Recorder Mark McKone KC said they carried out a ‘nasty and mean’ offence which resulted in the victim ‘effectively being driven out of his own home’.
Smith was jailed for 22 months and Thompson was jailed for 14 months.
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