Seven in court over brutal assault on Muslim takeaway owner and staff

STV News and the newspaper Fife Today reported on the court appearance of seven young men in connection with the alleged assault and racial abuse of a Muslim takeaway owner and a fellow staff member on the weekend following the Bataclan attack in Paris last November.

Mohammed Khalid, 53, and his wife, Maqsooda, who run the Caspian Fast Food shop in Methil, Fife, were attacked by a group of people in the early hours of Sunday 15 November 2015 as they were locking up their shop.

Mr Khalid’s daughter, Shama, posted video footage of the assault on her father on Facebook and wrote “My father was set upon by a mob of 15 young thugs as he tried to shield my mum and co-workers away [from the group] who had threatened to bash them. My dad was pummelled to the ground where he was repeatedly kicked, racially abused and stomped while my mum screamed at them to stop. This is not the first time incidents of racial hatred have occurred at the takeaway.”

Shama Khalid wrote that her father had sustained serious injury to his eye in the assault.

Kyle Campbell, 19; Brandon Munro, 18; Robbie Smart, 18; Connor Crombie 18; Sean Wood, 20, and two others aged 17 and 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court over the allegations of assault and racially aggravated abuse.

Munro, Smart and Campbell have also been charged in connection with the attack on shop assistant Mohammed Nadeem, 35, who they allegedly punched repeatedly and kicked.

All seven individuals have been charged with “acting in a racially aggravated manner which caused or was intended to cause alarm and distress” for allegedly shouting “racially offensive comments” at Mr Khalid.

Campbell, Munro (18), Smart (18), and the 17-year-old denied the charges on summary complaint. Sheriff John Rafferty sitting at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court set a trial date in October and ordered all seven men to attend a pre-trial hearing in September.

Wood, 20, Crombie, 18, and the 16-year-old, also of Kirkcaldy, did not enter any plea. The case against them has been continued until next month.