AN Elland man has been jailed for 14 months after a judge was shown CCTV footage of a racist assault on the top deck of a busy bus.
Drunken Ryan Roberts, 31, shouted “monkey” and “go back to your own country” at one black male passenger during the incident which took place on a bus travelling between Halifax and Huddersfield in August.
Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that other passengers intervened and one of them told Roberts to “chill out”.
The CCTV footage showed Roberts confronting passenger Guy Musengay who was grabbed by his tee-shirt and pushed against the window of the bus.
Roberts, of Langdale Street, pleaded guilty to charges of racially aggravated common assault and resisting a police constable in relation to the incident.
The court heard that he committed the offences just a few months after being given a community order for his part in a burglary.
Lawyer Ann-Marie Hutton told Judge Jonathan Rose that her client’s drinking that afternoon had been caused by him receiving information about the person who had murdered his mother when he was young.
She said in the cold light of day and when sober, Roberts appreciated just how appalling his behaviour was and hung his head in shame.
Judge Rose told Roberts that his tragic past could not be an excuse for his behaviour and added: “For too many years you have troubled the streets, the people of Elland and thereabouts and the courts with your behaviour fuelled by alcohol and drugs”.
He said Mr Musegay had done nothing to merit Roberts’ attention and he had been subjected to vile racist abuse.
The judge noted that Roberts’ girlfriend had tried to stop him and she had been left deeply upset by what he did.
The judge revoked the community order he imposed for the burglary offence and replaced it with a six-month prison sentence.
But he also added a further eight months in jail for the racially-aggravated common assault with no separate penalty for resisting the officer.
