Brothers sentenced for racially-motivated attack on taxi drivers

The incident occurred on October 11, 2013 in Ranelagh Road, Weymouth after Justyn Walker, 42, and James Walker, 39, had been out drinking.

James admitted assault by beating and possession of a Class B drug, while his brother Justyn admitted racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.

Their actions have been condemned by local figureheads who said the brothers should have received longer sentences.

Both defendants, from Crewkerne in Somerset, have a long list of previous convictions, with James’ exceeding 50 and Justyn’s exceeding 70.

Other offences committed by James Walker were also dealt with during the hearing at Dorchester Crown Court, including two counts of assault by beating and one count of burglary.

Justyn Walker was given a two year community order.

And taking into account his early guilty pleas, James Walker was sentenced to a total of 18 months in prison, including one month’s concurrent sentence for the assault and one month’s concurrent sentence for possession of a class B drug.

Prosecutor Mary Aspinall-Miles, told Dorchester Crown Court: “It’s quite clear that they were drunk.

“Justyn is heard to say ‘You ****ing Polish, go back to your ****ing country.’ “The brothers walked away and the situation seems to calm down but then they appeared later and the taxi drivers were still there.

“James Walker appears to have a screwdriver in his hand.

“One of the taxi drivers arms himself with a wheel brace.”

The court heard James Walker held one of the taxi drivers in an arm lock and spat at another during the offence. Ms Aspinall-Miles said when police searched James they found he was carrying a small lump of cannabis resin.

The court was told the Polish drivers had retaliated and one of them called the brothers ‘dirty English pigs’.

One of the taxi drivers complained to police about the brothers, but returned the next day saying his witness statement had a number of omissions about the other two taxi drivers.

Defending, Charles Gabb said he believed the incident was ‘six of one and half a dozen of the other’ and argued the taxi drivers had committed affray themselves.

Sentencing Justyn Walker, Recorder Mr James Freeman said: “These were taxi drivers doing their best to provide a service late in the evening. If it weren’t for the fact that they gave false evidence it would have had to have been a prison sentence.”

'No tolerance for this sort of behaviour'

SOCIAL inclusion spokesman for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council Francis Drake said: “The fact is they attacked someone trying to do a job late at night. They should have been at least a two year sentence.

“You can’t have members of the public doing a job, registered people doing a job properly, being attacked.”

He added: “We don’t want people like that in Weymouth.”

Dorset County Councillor of Weymouth Town ward Mike Byatt said that the community as a whole did not want to hear of or witness incidents of this nature.

He said: “We, as a community, I’m sure, will want to endorse that Weymouth, as a place to be, visit and do business, is a place where there’s no empathy or tolerance for any kind of racist or discriminatory behaviour.”