Thursday, January 18, 2007

Judge says you can call someone a 'fat bastard' but don't be racist

A man who called a police surgeon a “f***ing Paki” was advised yesterday by a judge: “Next time call him a fat bastard and don’t say anything about his colour.”
The judge gave the unusual advice after describing the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute the man for a racially aggravated offence as “a nonsense”.

Matthew Stiddard had been taken into custody by police officers who mistook him for a suspect in another case.

After two hours in a cell he demanded to see a doctor, complaining that his back hurt. But when Dr Imraan Jhetam arrived, Stiddart refused to be seen by him.

Exeter Crown Court heard that Stiddart, 36, swore and told him: “I want an English doctor, not a f***ing Paki.”

Judge Paul Darlow told the court that the case should never have been brought and suggested that Dr Jhetam should have let the insults “roll off his back”.

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