Gang who kicked a 14-year-old schoolboy around 'like a football' for being GINGER are jailed for 10 years
Three men who brutally kicked a
schoolboy 'like a football' because he has ginger hair have been jailed
for a total of ten years.
The 14-year-old was playing football with friends in Lincoln when he was singled out by violent ringleader Nathan Booth, 22.
Six-foot Booth stamped on the child's head as his older brother Callum, and their friend James Hatton, also ‘piled in,’ Lincoln Crown Court heard.
The trio were seeking revenge after another youth with red hair verbally abused Booth's sister, the court was told.
In an emotional witness statement the boy, who can not be named, he described how he was ‘kicked like a football’ after Booth approached him and asked for the time.
Gareth Weetman, prosecuting, said: ‘Nathan Booth took the lead and as the boy was taking his phone out to check the time he hit him.
‘He recalls the group of three piling in on him. He remembers the stamping of feet and curled up.’
The boy suffered a broken right arm as he tried to protect his head and later needed surgery to insert a metal plate to repair the injury.
Callum Booth, 27, and James Hatton, 25, were each jailed for 26 months after all three attackers admitted causing the boy grievous bodily harm.
Jailing all three men Judge Sean
Morris told them: ‘There was no reason for this attack, worse than that
it was just because he had red hair.’
The court heard Nathan Booth carried out two further unprovoked assaults within six months after being granted bail following the attack on the boy.
During the first incident Booth repeatedly punched a woman and twice kicked her in the face after becoming involved in a domestic row.
His victim, Emma Foster, 23, was taken to hospital with a ‘variety of injuries’ from her head to shin, the court was told.
In her victim impact statement Miss Foster said she now felt very depressed and was reluctant to go out in public.
Booth was again released on bail after the attack but was re-arrested just two months later after breaking a stranger's jaw during an unprovoked attack in a McDonalds near Lincoln University.
The man was left unable to eat for six months and required three operations to insert a plate in his jaw after Booth struck him with a single punch as he was sitting down in the restaurant ‘minding his own business.’
Booth, who lived on Lincoln's St Giles estate, admitted two charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm and a single offence of assault causing actual bodily harm.
Passing sentence of five years nine months against him ,Judge Morris warned Booth: ‘One day if you are not careful young man you are going to kill somebody.
‘You have been beating up children, beating up women, that is the mark of a coward.’
The 14-year-old was playing football with friends in Lincoln when he was singled out by violent ringleader Nathan Booth, 22.
Six-foot Booth stamped on the child's head as his older brother Callum, and their friend James Hatton, also ‘piled in,’ Lincoln Crown Court heard.
Nathan (left) and Callum Booth (right) stamped on the head of a 14-year-old boy because he had ginger hair
In an emotional witness statement the boy, who can not be named, he described how he was ‘kicked like a football’ after Booth approached him and asked for the time.
Gareth Weetman, prosecuting, said: ‘Nathan Booth took the lead and as the boy was taking his phone out to check the time he hit him.
‘He recalls the group of three piling in on him. He remembers the stamping of feet and curled up.’
The boy suffered a broken right arm as he tried to protect his head and later needed surgery to insert a metal plate to repair the injury.
Callum Booth, 27, and James Hatton, 25, were each jailed for 26 months after all three attackers admitted causing the boy grievous bodily harm.
Judge Sean Morris described Nathan Booth as a 'coward' for targeting woman and children in his attacks
The court heard Nathan Booth carried out two further unprovoked assaults within six months after being granted bail following the attack on the boy.
During the first incident Booth repeatedly punched a woman and twice kicked her in the face after becoming involved in a domestic row.
His victim, Emma Foster, 23, was taken to hospital with a ‘variety of injuries’ from her head to shin, the court was told.
In her victim impact statement Miss Foster said she now felt very depressed and was reluctant to go out in public.
Booth was again released on bail after the attack but was re-arrested just two months later after breaking a stranger's jaw during an unprovoked attack in a McDonalds near Lincoln University.
The man was left unable to eat for six months and required three operations to insert a plate in his jaw after Booth struck him with a single punch as he was sitting down in the restaurant ‘minding his own business.’
Booth, who lived on Lincoln's St Giles estate, admitted two charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm and a single offence of assault causing actual bodily harm.
Passing sentence of five years nine months against him ,Judge Morris warned Booth: ‘One day if you are not careful young man you are going to kill somebody.
‘You have been beating up children, beating up women, that is the mark of a coward.’