Man told Magherafelt store worker to 'go back to Afghanistan', court hears
A man who told an employee in a Magherafelt discount store to “go back to Afghanistan” and called him “a homophobic prick”, was handed a four-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, at the local magistrates court.
Before the court was 22-year-old Owen Barrow from Lockwood House, Exeter Road, Dawlish, Devon, who admitted a charge of common assault on September 9 last year.
District Judge Oonagh Mullan said Barrow he had made “some very unsavoury comments” and threatened the injured party.
She said the comments were racist and should not be tolerated in society.
Prosecuting counsel said police received a report that Barrow had become abusive towards the injured party in the store when he confronted him about his partner.
The lawyer said Barrow shouted abuse at the injured party in front of other employees and customers, telling him to go back to Afghanistan and calling him “a homophobic prick”.
He then threatend to assault him if he didn’t “get out of my face”, and the injured party believed it would be carried out.
Barrow then left the store and was later apprehended by the police.
A defence solicitor said Barrow believed his transgender partner was being bullied by the employee.
He said he had made a full apology to the injured party and written a letter of apology to the store.
The solicitor explained that Barrow has autism and ADHD and does not remember telling the injured party to go back to Afghanistan.
Pleading for leniency, he said the defendant and his partner both lived in England and he was unlikely to trouble the court in future.