A 55-year-old British man today admitted in a UK court to ripping off a Muslim woman's niqab or full face veil in a shopping centre and yelling "you are in our country now".
Peter Scotter, of Roker, Sunderland, appeared at Newcastle crown court to admit racially aggravated assault by beating and a separate charge of racially aggravated harassment. Both offences were based on Scotter's hostility towards a particular religious group, namely Islam, the court heard. Tony Hawks, defending, said Scotter had been diagnosed with a serious cancerous tumour under his tongue last week and was due to have an operation next Monday.
"I have seen some documentation showing that the diagnosis is pretty bad," the barrister was quoted as saying by the Press Association.
The judge, Stephen Earl, was quoted as saying that he would sentence Scotter later, once he had heard more details about the diagnosis.
"This is a custodial-band sentence, given his record and the nature of his actions," the judge said.
A previous hearing at Sunderland magistrates court heard how Scotter left his victim terrified when he attacked her in July.
Laura Lax, prosecuting, told the hearing the woman was waiting with her nine-year-old son for her husband outside a store in Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland when a man "purposefully" walked towards her and grabbed her niqab or the full face veil.
The force he used almost threw her to the ground and the niqab came away from her face, exposing her and causing pain to her neck.
A witness heard Scotter shout, "Here, take that (expletive) off, you are in our country now."
Scotter's previous convictions include actual bodily harm and racially aggravated criminal damage.
