Naveen Gharyal

A man has been arrested after a mother was allegedly racially abused in front of her two children on June 11. Unemployed Davion Kelly, 31, from Handsworth appeared before Birmingham magistrates charged on June 17 with three counts of causing racially or religiously aggravated alarm or distress and four counts of assault.

Kelly is accused of punching 31-year-old Muslim woman in the face in Heathfield Road, in Lozells at 2.30pm.The victim was reportedly sat in her car with her two young children and was waiting for traffic lights to change when she was approached and assaulted.

It is claimed the woman was then “racially abused” through the open window before the man threw water over her.

Police probe after Muslim mother is punched in the face in ‘horrific racist attack’ in Birmingham
Police said a man from Handsworth was arrested at 6.30pm on Thursday on suspicion of racially aggravated assault.

East Handsworth Councillor, Waseem Zaffer, told The Muslim News that it was an Islamophobic attack as the attacker said “You Muslim..”.

The Labour councillor visited the victim after the incident and said she was in a “state of shock”.
He said: “It’s a horrific attack. It happened in front of her two young children. She is a Muslim. It was an Islamophobic attack”.

Superintendent Mat Shaer from Birmingham Police said: “We will not tolerate any report of hate crime, these crimes are committed by a small minority of people and are not representative of wider communities”.

“There can never be any excuse for hate crime and I would encourage anyone who is a victim of hate to report it to police on 101 or online at www.report-it.org.uk. Clearly, 999 should be used if a crime is in progress or offenders are at the scene”.