A man who scrawled anti-white, racist abuse on his neighbour’s door and threatened to kill a woman with a knife has escaped prison after the judge heard he was an “absolute delight” and his actions were “certainly not representative”.
Thirty-year-old Kamran Akhtar — previously convicted for screaming “I hate you white people” at police constables who came to arrest him in a criminal damage case — had scrawled messages “peppered with expletives” on his own door and his neighbour’s door, both of which referred to the fact she was white.
Covering the story, GazetteLive declined to report what the messages actually said, and it is possible the judge prevented them from being aired in court.
Akhtar, from Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, refused to clean the graffiti when confronted by a support worker and screamed more racist abuse — also not detailed — through his neighbour’s letterbox.
When police arrived on the scene, Akhtar appeared at his window brandishing a knife, threatened to kill the support worker, and subjected police to a racist outburst.
He escaped prison, however, after social worker Jason Clare — who took the “unusual step” of placing Akhtar in a “younger persons’ care home” after the incident — said he was considered an “absolute delight” at his new residence, and that his repeated anti-white tirades are “certainly not representative of [him] generally”.
Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC accepted this, asserting that disorder “rather than inherent racial thoughts” had motivated his crimes, and handed him a short, suspended sentence and 35 days of “rehabilitation activity”.
Gary Wood, defending, had told the judge prior to sentencing that a consultant psychiatrist’s report indicated that Akhtar “has a borderline IQ level but also there is some evidence of autism and psychiatric illness, hearing voices, being extremely suspicious about his neighbours”.
Nevertheless, he was recommended for treatment “in the community” as he “doesn’t meet the criteria for detention in hospital”.
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