Youngster’s racist tirade leaves Muslim minister ‘feeling unsafe in Jersey’

Friday 31 August 2018

A Muslim minister was left in tears and fearing for his safety after being targeted with racial slurs in an unprovoked verbal attack by a young man who was yesterday blasted in court for his "appalling behaviour."

“Go back to your own country, you P*ki”, Rian Golding shouted at the man, who was standing outside One Stop Cafe at Cheapside at 22:30 on the evening of 4 July with two other Muslims.

Golding then unleashed more insults, including, “You smell of curry”, “you brown bastard” and, “You f***ing terrorist.”

In a hearing yesterday, the Magistrate’s Court was told one of the group, a Muslim minister, was so frightened by the unprovoked verbal attack that he ran into the café in tears and now “no longer feels safe in Jersey.”

A member of the public had already called Police to deal with Golding who’d allegedly tried to steal a bottle of olive oil from the Clock Café on Cheapside earlier on, and had pushed a man into a parked van causing hundreds of pounds’ worth of damage.

Pictured: The three men who were racially abused were outside One Stop Cafe on Cheapside. (Google Maps)

When Police caught up with Golding in Parade Gardens, he resisted arrest. 

Golding – who was 19 at the time of the offences, but is now 20 – appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to face a series of charges which also included assaulting his mother, shoplifting, and failing to comply with the terms of a young offenders order. 

Defending him, Advocate James Bell told Court that Golding admitted his outburst was “totally unacceptable” and that his behaviour had been “disgusting”, but added that he was not a racist.

Sentencing Golding, Magistrate Bridget Shaw told him his criminal record was shocking for one so young, but that as he was still a ‘young offender’ in the eyes of the law, she wouldn’t be sending him to prison. He was handed a total of 110 hours' community service and 12 months' probation.

Referring to Golding’s racist outburst, she told him: “That is not the way people should be treated in Jersey.”

She went on to say: “You would expect respect from people of other races and religions… You behaved appallingly.”

The former Minister for Home Affairs – Senator Kristina Moore, who was then a Deputy – told Express last August that she was in the process of drafting new hate crime legislation, but it was never finalised.

The law drafting remains ongoing under the new Home Affairs Minister and is expected to follow the definition of hate crime as set out in UK law, which includes threatening behaviour, assault, robbery, property damage and harassment against another individual on the basis of their race, religion, gender identity, disability or sexual orientation.

Once in force, it is hoped that the law will help drive up reports of hate crimes, which are currently at a low level. 80% of respondents to a recent Police survey said that they had witnessed hate crimes, but had not reported them.