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Two men plead guilty to assault on Turkish takeaway worker

Two men plead guilty to assault on Turkish takeaway worker

Categories: Latest News

Friday March 18 2016

Two men who denied charges of racially aggravated assault on a Turkish takeaway worker changed their pleas mid-trial after the prosecution presented evidence of their Facebook posts boasting about the incident.

Jack Hunter, 21 and Thomas Chapman, 23 appeared at York Crown Court this week. The court heard that both men had gone to Micklegate Takeaway in the early hours of 6 December 2014.

While the two men waited for their pizza order, Hunter started racially abusing the Turkish staff. When the two men were asked to leave for kicking pizza around on the floor and general bad behaviour, Hunter pushed a member of staff, Haydar Hazar, while Chapman punched him in the mouth knocking out three of his teeth. Hunter was also injured in the incident.

Hazar and his brother, Hassan, endured accusations that they had fabricated the assault and had been the ones to inflict Hunter’s injuries from his defence team.

But on day three of the trial, the prosecution presented Facebook posts by Hunter and Chapman in which both men had boasted about the way in which they had abused the takeaway staff. Hunter and Chapman changed their pleas and admitted their guilt.

The local paper notes that Hunter had told a probation officer that the racist words he used that night were “normal in his social circle.”

Recorder, Mark McKone at York Crown Court handed Hunter an eight week prison sentence, suspended for two years for racially aggravated assault.

Chapman, who was already serving a suspended sentence at the time of the incident, was handed a 14-month prison sentence suspended for two years for causing actual bodily harm. He was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to Haydar Hazar.

Both men were ordered to do 250 hours’ unpaid work, observe a six-month nightly curfew between 8pm and 5am and pay £750 prosecution costs.

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