Man jailed for “ongoing” abuse of Muslim neighbours

The Lancashire Telegraph reports on the jailing of a man convicted of racially aggravated threatening behaviour towards his Muslim neighbours.

Philip Townley, 58, was serving a suspended sentence for a similar offence when he was arrested for racially abusing his neighbour, Raheela Hussain.

Ms Hussain’s family lived across the road from Townley, in Blackburn, Lancashire, and his behaviour was an “ongoing problem”.

Blackburn magistrates court heard Mrs Hussain, her husband and two young children were returning home at 7.10pm in the evening on the night of the incident when she noticed Mr Townley and “formed the impression he was drunk”.

Mrs Hussain rushed her children into the house and went back to warn her husband when Townley started shouting “racist abuse relating to the fact he had lived in his house for 25 years and why should he have to live with people from ethnic minorities.”

The court heard the abuse went on for “10 minutes” after Mrs Hussain had got home.

Prosecutor Phillippa White told the court Townley had been reprimanded for similar incidents in the past including an incident in May for which he received a suspended prison sentence.

Colleen Dickinson-Jones, defending, told the court Townley had “difficulty with his neighbours who are predominantly Asian”.

She said he was “reacting to what was going on around him and felt nobody was listening to his side of the story.”

The chairman of the bench sentencing Townley said his behaviour was “totally unacceptable” adding, “Your neighbours were terrified and you have expressed no remorse for the way you behaved towards them.”

Townley pleaded guilty to racially aggravated threatening behaviour. He was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison with a further five weeks for being in breach of a suspended prison sentence order imposed for a similar offence.