An army veteran who was part of a mob who attacked a lone black man on Piccadilly Gardens when rival protests erupted into violence has been jailed.
A judge said it was a ‘genuine tragedy’ that father-of-two Colin Brown, from Northern Moor, who has been left with PTSD after being shot during a tour of Afghanistan, had ended up behind bars. The 37-year-old joined a ‘racist’ mob which breached police barricades erected in Manchester city centre to keep rival groups apart.
They then were involved in a confrontation with a lone male, who was then attacked by the group during a summer of trouble up and down the country.
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The defendant took part in what was described in court as a ‘far right’ protest which gathered in Piccadilly Gardens on August 3 but it clashed with a group of pro-Palestine counter demonstrators, Manchester Crown Court heard on Tuesday (November 11).
A ‘large number of police’ were deployed who erected metal fencing to keep the opposing factions apart but ‘widespread disorder’ took place with the fencing being ripped down, missiles being thrown and shops coming under attack, prosecutor Philip Hall told the court.
Footage gathered by the subsequent police investigation showed a lone black male being attacked by a group of white men. Brown was part of the group although he ‘does not make physical contact’ with the black male during the confrontation, said Mr Hall.
Later he was captured involved in a verbal confrontation with a woman of Syrian heritage in which he described the British government as ‘scumbags’, the court heard.
As he made his way up Mosley Street, he became involved in another confrontation, this time with a woman who was wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Arabic scarf. Brown called her a ‘terrorist slag’ as the rest of his group also verbally abused the woman and her friend, who was of Nigerian decent. Another member of the group called her friend ‘n****er’.
He ‘demanded’ she remove the scarf and she held it above above her head in what she later told police was a ‘show of strength because I knew that’s what they objected to’, the court was told.
But the woman almost fell to the ground as Brown forced it out of her hand and took it away from the traumatised woman. Another member of the group spat in the face of her friend, the court was told.
The woman bumped into Brown later and he confirmed he had dumped the scarf into a bin, said Mr Hall. Brown returned to Piccadilly Gardens and he again hurled abuse at counter demonstrators. He was captured shouting ‘stop raping the women or kids’ and shouting to one rival ‘come here you f***ing idiot’.
When Brown was later arrested, he insisted he had intended to join a ‘peaceful protest’ and that he had acted as a ‘peacemaker’.
He said the sight of the black and white scarf he snatched from the woman had ‘triggered’ his PTSD after being shot on a tour of Afghanistan. He said the woman had called him a ‘Nazi’.
Tom Farr, defending, said his client, who has no previous convictions, had not realised the lone black male was being attacked and insisted he ‘doesn’t get involved in any of the physical violence’ in Piccadilly Gardens. His client was ‘absolutely ashamed’ of his behaviour and had written letters to the both the court and the woman whose scarf he snatched.
Brown served in the military for 15 years and decided he wanted to ‘show solidarity’ by attending the protest after the fatal stabbings of three children in Southport because he had seen children ‘slaughtered’ in the middle east, said Mr Farr.
Brown had a ‘distinguished’ career in the army and had served in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq, the court was told. Diagnosed with PTSD, he still suffers ‘flashbacks’, depression and anxiety, said Mr Farr.
Following his ‘honourable discharge’ from the army, Brown became homeless and was reduced to ‘sofa surfing’ and relying on foodbanks, the court was told. Pointing to a psychiatric report, Mr Farr said his client had a ‘lack of full cognitions’ as a result of his diagnosis of PTSD.
Brown has raised more than £2,000 for the Spearhead Foundation which provides help for army veterans and he trains children how to box three or four times each week, the court heard.
Judge John Potter told Brown: “It’s a genuine tragedy to find you sitting in a criminal court awaiting sentence for serious criminal offending. But that’s the reality of the situation that you have brought upon yourself.”
The judge said Brown was ‘part of the far right group’ in Piccadilly Gardens. Noting that the defendant insisted he should not be viewed as racist, Judge Potter said Brown ‘chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with others who clearly were’ who were shouting ‘racist slogans and aimed violence at people who were not white’.
“The truth is you took part in that violence in this disorder,” he said, adding: “Your presence encouraged others to indulge in grotesque acts of racist violence and indeed you are seen later on… indulging in such violence yourself.”
Describing the incident where the defendant snatched the scarf, Judge Potter said it was ‘wholly inappropriate and highly abusive and designed by you to demean and humiliate your victim’.
Brown, of Moorcroft Road in Northern Moor, was jailed for two years and four months after he admitted violent disorder and a charge of robbery, concerning the scarf. The defendant blew a kiss to members of his family in the public gallery as he was taken down.
