A 16-year-old schoolboy was taken prisoner and beaten viciously while onlookers cried “Kill him!”
after his relationship with a Pakistani girl was discovered by her relatives.
The girl’s 29-year-old brother, Khizum Baig, 29-year-old cousin, Saqib Mirza Baig, 37-year-old uncle, Ghazanfar Mirza, and 48-year-old father, Mirza Baig, are said to have shouted “Don’t mess with our blood” and “find someone your own kind” as they battered her Bengali boyfriend with weapons and kicked him repeatedly in the head in an isolated cul-de-sac.
Onlookers including women are reported to have urged the men to “Kill him, kick him in the head, finish him off” as the attack unfolded.
The unnamed victim was spotted talking to the girl by father of seven Ghazanfar Mirza as he drove down the street.
Mirza is said to have immediately driven back and ordered the girl into his car, driving her away before returning to the scene and luring the 16-year-old into his car by pretending to be friendly.
“But once they were in the car Ghanzafar locked the doors and sped off up the road,” recalled prosecutor Nicholas Flanagan.
“During the journey Ghanzafar was ringing the other defendants asking them for weapons and making it plain that violence was to be perpetrated.
“He drove to a close where he and Saqib Baig live. Mirza Baig and Khizum Baig then arrived after.”
The group ordered the boy to unlock his phone and hand it over, dragging him into the street and administering a savage beating after discovering pictures of him and the girl together.
“The boy is of Bengali heritage and all of the defendants are of Pakistani heritage and are all related to the girl in some way.
“The ethnicity of the boy is the background motive for the attack.
“Comments were made saying ‘don’t mess with our blood’ and ‘find your own kind’.”
The boy was eventually driven off again and dumped outside a local barber shop, and needed to receive treatment for bruising and lacerations to his ear face, lip, head, and torso and at Royal Blackburn Hospital.
Several large cuts had to be treated with staples, leaving him with painful scars.
“I’ve lost my independence and I’m scared to leave home by myself,” the boy said in a victim impacy statement.
“I’ve been fearful since the attack and have stopped socialising with friends.”
The attackers have all admitted to various charges of affray, assault by beating, grievous bodily harm, and false imprisonment, but are attempting to deny the attack was aggravated by any sort of ethnic hostility — which could mean stiffer sentences.